There are three ways to try Linux, you can:
1) Install a Linux OS on a VM (Virtual Machine/VirtualBox/VMWare) for “safety purposes”
2) Use the Live ISO directly without installing anything, that way, you can get a “full Linux experience”.
3) Go all the way and overwrite everything with Linux (not recommended)
If you are serious about switching to Linux and if you have Windows dual-booted (recommended for pure newbies), we recommend you use it exclusively for 2 weeks, and avoid Windows dual booting for that period of time, or it is likely you will start retreating back to windows instead of getting used to GNU/Linux as your new home and working on making it feel the way you want it.
>Recommended for beginners:
- -Ubuntu MATE
- -Debian (For Broadcom devices, use an ISO that includes non-free firmware)
- -openSUSE
- -LinuxMint (a.k.a Ubuntu LTS + Cinnamon)
Please understand that much of your software from Windows will be unavailable, although maybe wine can make up for it.
Resources:
man
Your friendly neighborhood search engine. (Google)
https://www.codecademy.com/en/courses/learn-the-command-line
https://wiki.archlinux.org/
https://wiki.installgentoo.com/