Yep, boot from a thumb drive or if you’ve got the power for it run a vm in windows. When you’re ready for the half commit phase, dual boot. Then you can pick windows or Linux at startup.
I’ve never posted a question on a Linux forum, but I’ve searched and used lots. I currently run Linux mint and then put windows in a VM if I really need a windows app.
If you’re not a gamer (with caveats) and don’t have to use msoffice desktop apps you’ll likely be fine in Linux.
For gaming a lot of steam games are supported but not all so there’s some gap there.