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I have decided to try out the Linux world! I have read through a bunch of articles on some Linux distributions which were very informative but I was hoping someone here can suggest a distro for me based on some features that are a priority for me. They are:

  1. OS is secure (all non-essential services turned off/not installed).
  2. OS can be booted from USB.
  3. OS can save changes/files onto that USB.
  4. OS is updated frequently (security patches/etc).
  5. Can browse web and watch flash videos.
  6. Has support for multiple monitors.
  7. Has encryption tools to encrypt files (PGP/etc)

Thank you

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8  
"OS is secure"..."can watch flash videos." My brain just exploded. Thank you very much. – Warren Young Feb 10 at 4:48
I know, I know. Those two dont go together. Either that or it would have html5 support. Some sites (like youtube) can use instead of flash. – BlueChameleon Feb 10 at 4:52
Your best bet if you want security would be a minimalist distro, such as Arch, and adding a GUI, browser, and Flash if you need it. – tkbx Feb 10 at 4:58
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@BlueChameleon then I'd recommend Linux Mint. It's very similar to Windows, and the default version comes with Java, Flash, and other things you wouldn't want to install yourself. It also includes themes, and things like Gimp and LibreOffice that most people will need sooner or later. – tkbx Feb 10 at 5:28
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@EmanuelBerg have you... used Linux? If someone needs a text editor, they'll use a text editor. I'm no expert, but I haven't seen a .txt with headers, justification, page numbers (or pages, for that matter), or line spacing. It's interface is similar to Windows, with the taskbar and menu in the same place, I don't believe it will get a BSoD or require a registry repair. If you believe that Arch and Gentoo are good beginner choices, that's your opinion, I'd personally recomment something that requires editing less than 20 .conf files and less than 400 lines of Lua. – tkbx Feb 11 at 12:54
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2 Answers

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Security: All of UNIX platforms are secure, it's you are that secure your OS, configure, tune and so on. Security is a big domain that network is a subdomain of it. It's you are to decide when to use invoke which OS in which time. server side? desktop? embedded? and etc?

booting from USB:

almost all of UNIX platform specially GNU/Linux can boot from usb, it's you are that should decide to use which os on what time. rescue time? install time? troubleshooting time and so on.

update:

Almost all of them should be updated. It's related to your packages.

Multiple monitor:

It's related to your hardware. not OS. and support your driver.

PGP/GPG:

all of the support it.

flash video:

You should install non-freesofware codec.Almost all of them support it.

save files onto usb:

it's same a joke. all of them can do it.

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I think by "support for multiple monitors" the OP meant simultaneously, in which case the OS is involved. And drivers are part of the OS (although monitors generally do not need drivers; they are connected to the video card). Anyway, in graphical mode all linuxes will support multiple monitors since the Xorg server does, in a few different configurations. – goldilocks Feb 10 at 12:24
Of course nowadays xorg server solved this problem. – Mohsen Pahlevanzadeh Feb 10 at 14:09
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As Mohsen said, all desktop distros will do everything on your list although there may be a couple that make installing flash awkward; anything which is distributed as a compiled binary only (such as the flash player) can be pesky on linux. However, flash will work fine once you figure out how to install it.

As a newcomer two common distros to stay away from would be Arch and Gentoo.

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