Wooden or metal flute? Wooden ones need lots of tlc and regular oiling. Chiff & Fipple have a flute forum and there's a site specifically for wooden flutes. You can cheat and go for a wooden sounding flute made of polymer (Delrin).

Main beginners problems are getting a note without falling over, breathing in the right place and the stretch required to get to all the holes. You can get keys fitted to wooden to help

OK so you've got Boehm system classical flutes these have a hole on the back, keys on most holes and are straight bore. The fingering is like a recorder. Problems can be that you have to wait for key to go down and up so if you play VVV fast it doesn't work very well. Mostly metal but you can get wooden which has a mellower sound.

Simple system flutes are wood, cane or polymer (beware of cheap imports on EBay or very old flutes which may not be in modern pitch). Fingering is like a tin whistle (no hole on back) only a few keys usually none, one, 5, or 8 and occaisionally 10. You can get slurring and sliding effects cos not all holes keyed. Will play as fast as your fingers

Hope thats helpful

Sarah