FWIW: The issue is not whether Windows 8 is installed but whether the machine is Windows 8 approved. If it is, 'secure boot' has to be enabled by default. However, if the option was Windows 7, you presumably have 'insecure' boot (at least by default) and don't have to worry about that can of worms.
I quite like Fedora although it would not be my first choice as a primary distro. (I kind of use it as my second distro - on my work machine, on my mother's machine, but not on *my* machine...)