Hello.

I am setting up my laptop and would like to have both Linux & Windows 8 running simultaneously, what are the pros & cons of setting the system up with Win 8 Host & Linux Guest or the other way round (Linux Host & Win 8)?

If this has been discussed a lot already, please direct me to relevant sources. I could only find docs/articles on how to install OSs in a VM.

More context:
- Debian Testing as the main Linux OS, because I'm used to Debian. I'm open to suggestions if another derivative or flavour is known to be good in this scenario. I shall need a UI, though.
- I intend to use VirtualBox as the VM - again, I'm open to other options if there's a good case.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Thank you in advance.

Using Linux as the host and Win8 as the guest gives you a bit more resource flexibility. Linux is generally a lower-overhead OS, allowing resources to be more available to the Win8 guest when you need it. Plus, you have more control to shut things down in Linux if you really need to push the envelope with Win8.

I like VirtualBox - been using it for years on Linux, Windows, and Mac OSX.

Microsoft always seems to be positioning themselves in the "how much horsepower is available on your machine? I need a little more than that" camp. They want all of the resources, don't want to share anything, and believe that they understand how to divvy up CPU, RAM, and disk for apps (your Linux guest would effectively be an app) better than absolutely any other entity on the planet - no one is smarter than they are.

I haven't used any form of Windows with any sort of regularity for about three years now. There are certain apps that I absolutely need Windows for (Visio), and I spin up a Win7 guest to run it. I have no interest in Win8 because it's even more bloated than Win7.

You may have to have a full win 8 dvd to run it in a vm.

I think this is a very pertinent point. If you don't have the full Windows 8 DVD and license key combination then you likely can't use it as a guest.
Otherwise I would say that whichever OS is likely to accrue and deal with the most hard drive space and/or uses the hardware more ought to be the host. The host will have faster access to storage (in a standard install at least) and will be the only one which can use some hardware and the only one able to get full use from the hardware it can use.

I thought that there was a learning curve with linux, but I recently had my hands on a wins8 machine & I felt like a dummy. I almost referred back to that statement to RTFM.

Windows 8 is a major change in the UI, MUCH more so than what we saw between Program Manager (Win3.1) and Explorer (Win95+). Win8 was specifically written / designed with touch device in mind, and it's very clunky to use with just a mouse and keyboard at your disposal. Quite bluntly, I hate it. And, it seems like to be the last straw of being willing to deal with any of the current forms of Windows.

I opened a pdf in it & it was quite difficult to get out of it.

I absolutely agree with thois, and have said so since Win8 preview was released.

I *really* like Win8 on a tablet, but it's hell to use as a Normal computer. It's even worse as a server...Win2012 server is extremely clunky (IMO).

If you are adventurous enough to do it, I would install Linux as the host ... and an earlier version of Windows as the guest.

Linux is a far more efficient operating system, especially if you brave the waters of a source-distro like Gentoo, or if you simply optimize the system to more closely match your hardware's capabilities. Since a virtual-machine is very dependent upon its host, gains in host efficiency are magnified upon each guest.

Quite frankly, IMHO, Microsoft has completely lost its way with regard to the Windows-OS ... implementing the products of internal "group-think" instead of what their (corporate(!)) customers want, ask for, and have repeatedly asked for, for many years. It is clear that, with Windows-8, "somebody high-up in Redmond discovered 'tablets,'" and twisted the new release to be focused upon what is appropriate for "a little-bitty screen and a comparatively great-big finger." Not for what millions of computers actually look like. And, even though The Other Steve has now been politely shown-the-door, the "groupthink" shows no real signs of abating in the land of gratuitous coffee and mandatory raincoats. That's sort of a system would be "a fat slob" of a host.