So I spent most of the weekend trying to dual boot my laptop so I could use Debian rather than Windows8.
Only a new thing has happened which is called uefi, and oddly pronounced like unity without the n.  This is the new secure boot system, so strictly speaking isn’t Microsoft’s fault but they do seem to have used it to make booting anything that is windows a complete nightmare.

Annoyingly while I can boot the Debian boot USB image that can’t talk to my wireless network, (and my new laptop doesn’t have a Ethernet port, clearly shows when I last upgraded my laptop).
So I can’t try and download additional packages that might help.  Or read the internet forums on the topic from within Linux.

So at the moment I am stuck with Windows8, so I had just better get to like it.