I might be a little biased but I wouldn’t really choose Python as your first language. I did and I can’t say I regret it but I would have rather strated with Go, the language I currently use. Go will allow you to learn more concepts whilst having a syntax that isn’t so different from Python. Go is especially useful for building projects because not only is it reasonably easy to use, it is vary fast and it has a lot of support and libraries. Python obviously even more support but it is very slow and quite limiting, also the thing that it’s best at is AI and data science, which fingers crossed 🤞 will be taken over by Mojo. As projects to work on I recommend working with the web building web applications.
As for Linux, the general consensus will be use Ubuntu. I personally have been converted to a Arch zealot so I recommend something like Arco, Endeavour or Garuda. If you’re very daring then even go for Arch.
If you want an advantage in your computer science class have a look at the leetcode easy questions.
PS: I am only in my first year of highschool so take my comment with a grain of salt because I still have a lot to learn.
In my opinion the first programming language that you choose does influence how you learn and perceive new languages.