Many (if not most) linux distros have a ‘live USB’ option, where you can boot into a fully functional system contained within a USB drive, without making any changes to your computer.
If all you want to do with it for now is ‘playing around with it’, then that would be a great solution. Lets you know how well it works on your hardware, doesn’t have the slowdown issues of a VM*, doesn’t require any drastic changes and has no risk of breaking anything.
*A live USB will still be a bit slower than a real installation in some respects, especially when it needs to read anything from storage, since USB storage is much slower than your hard drive.
This is the beat option. Also make sure if you’re considering fully switching to see if any of the software you’re using is supported on Linux or has an alternative.
Many (if not most) linux distros have a ‘live USB’ option, where you can boot into a fully functional system contained within a USB drive, without making any changes to your computer.
If all you want to do with it for now is ‘playing around with it’, then that would be a great solution. Lets you know how well it works on your hardware, doesn’t have the slowdown issues of a VM*, doesn’t require any drastic changes and has no risk of breaking anything.
*A live USB will still be a bit slower than a real installation in some respects, especially when it needs to read anything from storage, since USB storage is much slower than your hard drive.
This is the beat option. Also make sure if you’re considering fully switching to see if any of the software you’re using is supported on Linux or has an alternative.