Yesterday a young man posted on flutenet re: inline vs offset G flutes. The discussion has been interesting and I certainly have ‘chimed in’ plenty! In sum, I have a strong bias towards the open hole offset G. This stems from having tried playing inline for several years but never really feeling comfortable with the violin-like position of my left hand, then moving to offset back in 1979 (a time when very few people were buying pro flutes with offset G) and liking it much better.
A beginner does not need an open hole flute. This will make it much more difficult to learn on because you will be concentrating on hand placement.