I ran a public node as my wallet for years on both Ubuntu and Windows frankly, the same wallet.dat was used on my public node for years but that’s terrible opse

I ran a public node as my wallet for years on both Ubuntu and Windows frankly, the same wallet.dat was used on my public node for years but that’s terrible opsec. Do not recommend a novice doing this. Like someone below has mentioned there are numerous exchanges now that will gladly serve as your gateway into bitcoin. Just remember though, if you not in control of the private keys securing your wallet, it isn’t your money. Do not blindly believe cryptocurrency exchanges are not running a fractional reserve. Without a transaction I’d on the bitcoin network, it never happened. FWIW I started in bitcoin trading for anything in a chat room on irc. The landscape has changed significantly since.