I assume SSH is not exposed to the internet by default on openSUSE? I have not used SSH on my install so should I be safe if I just update?

Do we need to go through what autopilot in a plane or boat actually does again?

If you’re new, Ubuntu (or one of its variants, like Xubuntu or Kubuntu) or Linux Mint are great “safe” options. The only thing to consider with Mint is that there is only an LTS release so you will end up with older versions of some programs. I’ve been using Linux as my primary OS for 17 years but I will still throw Xubuntu on a laptop if I just want to get something up and running quickly - other than having some extra packages installed out of the box there’s nothing “wrong” with it.

That said I use openSUSE Tumbleweed as my daily driver. I like the rolling release and cutting edge packages, plus I like that YaST allows me to install the system exactly the way I want - picking and choosing individual packages.

You do on Linux as well, it’s just installed by default.