I can't tell you precisely about Windows 8, but I can tell you some general considerations.
First of all, when your computer starts, it executes either BIOS code (which is the old boot system) or EFI code, which is the new system. There are also 2 partitioning schemes: old MBR one and new GPT one. The EFI and GPT cases are well covered here and here.
I'll consider the traditional case of BIOS/MBR.
In that case problems with Windows are:
Windows bootloaders (in case of Windows7 it was BOOTMGR) want primary partitions to contain the Windows kernel code. Older Windows bootloaders also wanted the first primary partition for Windows, but hopefully newer ones don't. Linux bootloaders can load OS from logical partitions within the extended partition.
They often recommend to install Windows first in case of dual-boot system, because, if you install Windows second, Windows bootloader code will overwrite Linux bootloader code in MBR. Allegedly it's much easier to configure Linux bootloader to load Windows if you've installed Linux second, than to configure Windows bootloaders to recognize Linux, if Windows was installed last (and, AFAIK, Windows always overwrites MBR upon installation, even if Linux bootloader was there).
They say that older Windows installers would wipe out all the disk (including Linux partitions) before creating partitions for Windows and installing it. Hope Windows 8 one is not that dumb.