I know Whonix is ultimately the best, but for casual buyers, please correct me if I am wrong, but I feel that a fully patched machine running Linux Mint with an updated TOR browser is more secure then TAILS.
The reason I feel this way, is because whenever a zero day is found the Linux Mint team releases a patch ASAP and I install it, same with TOR browser, you get a near instant patch. But if you use TAILS you have to wait for the TAILS team to release an entire NEW operating system and then checksum it and then burn the DVD.
It just seems like to me Whonix and Linux Mint + TOR is superior to TAILS. Please correct me if I am wrong so I can change my ways.
tails already has unnecessary thing stripped that would only increase the attack surface unlike linux mint
tails is amnesiac by default or offers a strong full disk encryption if you use persistence. IIRC you can encrypt your home folder with mint or maybe some more but it will never be as secure as the full disk encryption of tails
buyers and [most] vendors should not worry about 0 days in tails or the Tor browser since it is very expensive to get them, there also will probably never be one that can de-anonymize every Tor user and law enforcement would never waste such exploits on drug users and vendors. therefore the update cycle of tails is completely ok. there are more important opsec topics which vendors and buyers should worry about.
not true, tails has an internal updater which only requires a few clicks. until version 18, mint had not even an internal updater so you had to to the steps above to get the latest version [although the older version would get security fixes for some time].
tl;dr tails is the os of choice for many dnm users for a reason