Maybe
I haven't tried to install Ubuntu on a machine that came with Windows 8, but I do know that Kubuntu and Windows 8 can coexist happily on the same machine. I have a machine that originally came with Vista. I took advantage of the free Win7 upgrade offered (despite Best Buy telling me that it did not qualify) and installed Kubuntu as a dual boot. I recently upgraded the Win7 partition to Win8 to take advantage of the $49.95 upgrade so I have at least one machine to learn about 8 on. I have experienced no issues. Apparently the problems are related to the way Secure Boot (?) is implemented in the BIOS of some machines. I'm in the market for a new machine so if I get one I'll have the opportunity to learn first hand. I have already contacted Asus on one of their laptops and they assure me the two can live happily on the same machine. We'll see. I began using Ubuntu in June of '06 and have explored many of the Linux Distros since. I have pretty much settled on Kubuntu with Puppy installed on a few very old low power machines. It's too bad that there has to be so much animosity between OSes. There are really enough users out there for everyone. I use Linux most of the time, but have a few things that, like other users have stated, will only work with Windows and won't run under Wine. Hopefully one day the OS wars will end or at least declare a cease fire. I'm not holding my breath, though.
