Get a virtual box installed on your computer and run it inside your current OS to practice with low risk. When you feel comfortable enough, format and make the switch.

>>1
what OS is best for beginners?

>>2
You could start with Ubuntu but I don't think you'll learn too much, since that's so easy to pick up. I could be wrong though, maybe ubuntu is just right for you.

>>2
Slackware

Just get Linux Mint or ubuntu, learn terminal and linux enviroment overall, Then when u feel u have learned something and that your distro doesnt challenge you anymore, feel free to switch.... After Ubuntu i recommend Arch Linux, and if you want to master linux jump to Gentoo after all of that. Gentoo is endgame of autism.

>>2
Source Mage

>>1
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.

Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.

There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.