Quoted snippet of Darrion Burgess from BALUG-Talk thread https://lists.balug.org/mailman3/hyperkitty/list/balug-talk@lists.balug.org/... :
to start, the easiest way to ease into is using the windows subsystem for linux (WSL) so you can try out different distributions using the windows terminal.
Its even sophisticated enough to have a wayland compositor at this point so you can even run GUI apps from the linux containers.
Besides WSL, another good(IMHO) means of more easily running Linux distros w/in MS-Windows is to use Oracle VirtualBox Quoting its main site https://www.virtualbox.org/ : ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualization software for x86_64 hardware (with version 7.1 additionally for macOS/Arm), targeted at laptop, desktop, server and embedded use. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The VirtualBox 7.1.6 platform packages dwonloads for Windows and other OS hosts can be found at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
Am concurrently attending both the in-person and Jit.si Meet virtual meetups of the Berkeley Linux Users Group https://berkeleylug.com/ -- and am using VirtualBox for Debian GNU/Linux 12.x 'Bookworm' as hosting OS on a second laptop. VBox works great and is more [ful]filling! :-D
-A --