what is a Virtual Machine ?
It's a software application designed to look and run like an OS different from the OS installed on a computer, mobile device, or even server. as per codecademy.com/resources/blog/what-is-a-vir..
A Virtual Machine (VM) is a compute resource that uses software instead of a physical computer to run programs and deploy apps. One or more virtual “guest” machines run on a physical “host” machine. Each virtual machine runs its own operating system and functions separately from the other VMs, even when they are all running on the same host. This means that, for example, a virtual MacOS virtual machine can run on a physical PC. As per vmware.com/topics/glossary/content/virtual-..
Why use a virtual machine?
Anyone involved in software development — Front-End Developers, Back-End Developers, and Full-Stack Developers — can benefit from using a virtual machine. That's because VMs offer a lot of testing flexibility. You can even break things without consequences! Here are the biggest advantages of virtual machines:
Run multiple operating systems at the same time The biggest advantage of using a virtual machine is running another — sometimes several — different operating systems at once. The only limiting factors are the hardware resources of the host machine. This means that whenever you're developing applications or software, you can effectively test your work on multiple operating systems without having to buy another physical machine or use a different server.
Access the power of a server from anywhere If you're using a server or host machine, then you have access to the server's processing power as long as you have an online connection to it. Theoretically, you can write, run, and test high-performance programs from a laptop or even a tablet.
for more check out this : codecademy.com/resources/blog/what-is-a-vir..
There are different kinds and types of Virtual Machine available out there but here we have only these
- Oracle VM VirtualBox - one its free , regularly updated and its owned by oracle which is a trusted company.
- VMware - VMware Workstation -its free version is called VMware player which is free for personal use.
now we are going to see either Virtualbox or VMware to install a linux distro
Update: if You want to install Ubuntu on a virtual box then checkout this easy guide in below url: ubuntu.com/tutorials/how-to-run-ubuntu-desk.. freecodecamp.org/news/how-to-install-ubuntu..
Update : youtube.com/watch?v=ROjZy1WbCIA This video has intro to linux and also installation guide for ubuntu , incase if you need it