This will be the closest to bare metal install when compared to running it from USB. USB live tend to feel laggy, because of the bus, but in a VM, it's just like bare metal (almost) minus the "going all our" part.
Try many different distros and DEs before you make your choice.
Try atomic distros too, they may or may not be your cup of tea.
Go crazy on a VM. If you don't like it, nuke it, try again with something else.
The only problem is the insane amount of options, which is also what makes this so much fun.