Here are the ways to run Linux on a Windows box:
1. Run it in a VM. VirtualBox is good and you can even use Vagrant to create and destroy VMs for a completely clean build each time. However, Microsoft also has its own VM subsystem, even though I haven't used it in so long I forget its name.
2. Set up a Dual Boot system. In such a case, when you boot your laptop, you get a boot menu where you pick which OS you want to run. The OS you select then boots up and completely owns the machine until shutdown, so as long as you have the disk space (about 15BG currently) and don't need both OS's at the same time, that's a popular option.
3. Set up a "Live Boot" system. Many distros allow you to create a USB thumb and/or DVD OS image. Plug it in, make sure your BIOS can boot from it, and go. As with Dual Boot, the Live Boot system owns the machine, and it will typically run slower since external peripherals generally aren't as fast as internal ones, but it's convenient. The Live Boot is also intended for people who want to preview an OS distro and optionally install it to their hard drive.
Having said that, there's very little need to run Linux just to develop Java applications (including webapps) on a Windows machine. For several years, in fact, I ran Windows XP on my desktop for production systems running Linux and Solaris and so did the rest of my department. It's true — when you code properly, Java is, in fact "Write Once/Run Anywhere". The popular IDEs and build tools all are available under both platforms, and a WAR built under Windows can be directly shipped to a
Tomcat server running on Linux or even MacOS. Or debuggerd/tested on a Tomcat running under Windows. Just as an example.