[mothered]

To add, would this be best as a VM or an install to the HD ?

If you have the resources to run a VM efficiently, there's no difference.

I've got 32GB of ram (and the 7th Gen Quad Core CPU) and running 8 VMs (Tails, Kodachi, Whonix, Privatix, Liberté Linux, Parrot OS, KNOPPIX, Windows 10). All simultaneously with no loss of stability and functionality. The good thing about VMs, Is that In the event you don't like OS, It's deleted with a click of the mouse.