It’s super easy to start a VM to try.

Just install qemu (and optionally enable KVM), then to run eg. Ubuntu installer:

qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -enable-kvm \
  -m 2G \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 2 \
  -cdrom /path/to/ubuntu-24.04-desktop-amd64.iso \
  -hda ubuntu-disk.qcow2 \
  -boot d \
  -vga virtio \
  -display gtk

After you install it, run the VM:

qemu-system-x86_64 \
  -enable-kvm \
  -m 2G \
  -cpu host \
  -smp 2 \
  -hda ubuntu-disk.qcow2 \
  -boot c \
  -vga virtio \
  -display gtk

Or use libvirt, like a layer on top to make things much simpler. I use virt-manager for GUI and virsh on command line.