How can I get Linux on a laptop with Win 8?

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I recently got a new laptop to replace my Macbook (it was acting up and the battery wouldn't charge, plus I just don't like Apple). It came with Windows 8 pre-installed, and I immediately disliked it. It's not as much as I dislike OS X, but I just don't like the way the start menu is now, at all. I click start thinking I'll get a pop up menu and instead it goes to that crappy "user friendly" start menu, and the worst part is there isn't even a setting to change it.

I still am not that mad about it I guess, but it is annoying, and I think it would be nice to have Linux along with Windows, to where I can choose which one to start in when I boot the laptop (like BootCamp in OS X). Is there a way to do this? The way I did it on my Macbook was I mounted a Windows 7 installation iso and just used the BootCamp feature on OS X to partition the drive and install Windows on the new partition. Is there a feature or program that will allow me to do this on Windows 8 for Linux?

I dual boot Windows 8 and Ubuntu on my laptop (using the former only seldom as a last resort). At least the way the Ubuntu installer sets it up, it first boots into GRUB, with an option to either boot Ubuntu or to switch into the Windows boot sequence.

I recently got a Windows 8.1 laptop and apart from Windows 8.1 being a user interface train wreck, I detested using it and it also became unstable and got itself stuck so it couldn't do any more Windows updates. Anyway, long story short, I downloaded Kubuntu 64 bit version and installed it on the laptop with a dual boot. It was fairly painless as I had a little help from a friend. It will either work straight out of the can and be very easy to install or you may have some problems getting Kubuntu to recognise some of your hardware such as WiFi in which case it can be quite a headache. Definitely worth a try though. I've recently installed Kubuntu on another old laptop and it went on like a dream with no problems. I'm posting from that Kubuntu laptop right now.

I more or less followed the instructions here except that I installed Kubuntu rather than Ubuntu: http://www.everydaylinuxuser.com/2013/09/install-ubuntu-linux-alongside-windows.html

Windows 8 is a good OS I think but it does need some tweaking.
It definitely starts and shutdowns faster than anything i've ever seen.

You can replace the metro start thing with 'Classic Shell' that can look like the old classic start menu in XP or the Vista/7 start menu.

Check it out

classicshell.net

Classic Shell is great. You get all the advantages of Windows 7 (without having to deal with that godawful Windows Aero), and you get the enhanced performance and security of Windows 8.x.

If you wish to dual boot, then screw Ubuntu. Install Antergos instead; it's based on Arch Linux, and comes with Cinnamon, which is a dream to work with.

Another thing that you can do is buy a separate Hard Drive, and a USB baddy for it, and swap drives as needed. You will also most likely need to disable the Secure boot option in your computers' BIOS/Firmware, and re enable it when you swap the Linux drive for the Win8 drive.

There are workarounds to get Linux to work with UEFI as well, but it's easier to just boot in legacy mode if you want to use Linux. Be sure to use signed repositories; rootkits are an increasing problem on Linux, since there are no standard kernel space signatures.