I’m not a linux expert nor widely linux savvy - but some are definitely more of a learning curve than others or serve specific purposes. If you want to just test/try some out in a virtual machine - I use https://www.osboxes.org/ + VMWare for testing (so … VMware Images )
I don’t think you can go wrong with Debian or Fedora or Ubuntu (Linux Mint is/was well known). As for privacy/security IMO they’re all much the same at a base threat level (and anything supported is better than windows 7)
Give em a try in a VM before a final decision 