I am looking to start using Linux. I want to put a distro on an external as a virtual machine. I think I have narrowed down my choices to the following: openSUSE, SuperX, SalentOS, Ubuntu MATE, Tails, KXStudio, and AVLinux.
I do a lot of work with Matlab and I do a lot of image processing (not photoshop!). I also like tinkering and will be using EAGLE, Visual Studio, SketchUp, and a lot of project-based programs. Privacy is also very important to me. I am looking to build an environment that I can take with me and use on any machine. Being new to Linux, I want something that is intuitive while I get more familiar with it. I need it to be user-friendly while still allowing me to use a wide variety of programs, have good security, and be versatile enough to be run from a virtualbox on any machine.
There are a lot of distros out there and I'm not sure which one would best suit my needs. I've been reading about the various distros and am thoroughly confused at this point.
Can someone please give me some recommendations and explain their reasoning? All words of wisdom are welcome!
Thanks in advance.
John

Unless you are pressed for time, hard drive space or bandwidth I would suggest you take a look at something like DistroWatch and download the more popular distributions and try them all in VirtualBox. You will need to do things like install guest additions to get full screen and learn to install Matlab as well as messing with the various VirtualBox networking options (unless you already know about them). In doing so you'll get a good idea of which distributions you like. Then, you need to choose your Desktop Environment or Window Manager...
There is a lot of investigation to be done but it is well worth it and VirtualBox and VMWare (which may be better under Windows?) make it so much easier.

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Welsome to the forum!

Unless we know why you chose those distros, it's difficult to say which you should pick. I can only say I don't know SuperX or KXStudio: since I've reviewed over 100 distros, that suggests that their either very new or a bit marginal. Tails is a bit specialised, so I haven't used that either. AVLinux is also specialised, with a low-latency kernel and an emphasis on music, but it's very good. If you want a Debian-based distro with Mate, I'd think that Mint is a better choice than Ubuntu, since Mint and Mate have the same lead developer. OpenSUSE and SalentOS are very different: one with the flashy KDE desktop (SUSE is at its best with KDE) and the other with the spartan OpenBox. When I looked at SalentOS, it had only 50 users signed up to its forum, suggesting it may be an endangered species. I suppose that means I'm backing OpenSUSE.

Hi.

A Debian-netinst for me does anything (except dishes yet.)

OpenSUSE has been solid *here over the years, the others I don't know much of... except Ubuntu where things work really well like in microcoughed-windblow$. The lesser-known or newer distros have always been fun for me but usually change fast. That's no problem if using VMs back them up or just delete and start over? There are also prebuilt VMs available all around.

I also say try lots of them (free) plus there plethora of environments. But regularly, make many forms of your irreplaceable data backed-up. Best wishes and have fun!