I spent some time working through the Vagrant tutorials.  There are a number of pre-canned virtual boxes with all sorts of software as part of the box.  This allows you to start playing in an isolated sandbox.

As the sandpits are scripted they can be spun up, destroyed or have boot up shell scripts added in perfect safety.  As someone completely new to Linux and Vagrant I found it surprisingly easy to get started.  The skills are useful in their own right but are really a foundation stone for greater learning