I'd say you can get acquainted simply by using it and learning as you do so. I'd recommend either Ubuntu or Manjaro as these are the two that I've used for more than a few hours and are straightforward to install and use. Both Ubuntu and Manjaro have instructions for installation on their websites on creating a bootable USB for installation, the installation wizard will walk you through the process and give you the option of installing it in a separate partition. It is also possible to just run the os from the thumb drive itself to get a feel of it before you install.

It's perfectly possible, getting certain games to run might be challenging but for the most part of surfing the web, answering emails, creating documents/spreadsheets/slides I almost don't notice the difference