For instance, installing Arch Linux on my older laptop through a VM results in noticeable slowdowns and lag compared to ...

and as a VM. For my installation, I followed the guide on "Running Flatcar Container Linux on VMware." This guide was tested on vSphere and Fusion but has a note that it should work with Workstation.

Installing Python ... for that version of Python. On Microsoft Windows or macOS, this doesn’t involve much more than downloading the installer executable. On Linux, the process is far more ...

That said, Google wisely chose the popular Java programming technology upon which to base its Android SDK, which runs a customized VM ... Linux. Pop on over to Google's Android Developer site (see ...