I want to play around with linux and learn a bit about programming so i was thinking that i would install linux to my laptop. It is an acer V3 15.6" with a single 750 gb HDD, an ivy bridge dual core i5 and a nvidia gt630m. I was wondering is it possible to have windows 8 and Linux installed on the one HDD and if so how? I have tried looking for a walkthrough online but cannot find one that suits my needs. Also what distro would be the best for me.
Yes, of course. It is called Dualbooting. What you have to do is make a separate partition on your HDD on which you will install linux. Use the disk manager on windows to allocate some space (say around 100 GB depending on your needs) for the new OS. Then you can use a USB Flash drive to make a bootable installer to install it. It is very simple to do if you follow the instructions carefully.
Popular choices are Ubuntu, EDUbuntu, Linux Mint or fedora. DIg around, you won't be disappointed with any of the popular distros. They have a huge support community and you will find all the solution to all noob problems. Cheers
Is there a walkthrough or something that you know of that i can follow?
Assuming you have decided to go ubuntu