As a professional software developer, I don't have any choice about that. However, notice I recommended he buy a Windows7 laptop. In general, I don't recommend anyone buy the dot-zero release of
anybody's OS. And before the usual OS bigots from Linux and MacOS jump me, I have real hardware and VM's with both of those OS's, too, and the dot-zero release of those products are not any different from Microsoft's. I have to support them because clients insist on doing stupid things, like buying the newest "improvements," or hanging onto OS's that are many years past their useability, like Windows XP.
Pioneers take arrows. Always been that way, always will be.
I'm also a professional software developer, and I run a Mac as the most versatile system for developers. It's the only "legitimate" way to run OS/X, and I run Win7 and Linux in VMs. It let's me do
anything. And, I love my Macbook Air.
However, I gave my mother a Win7 machine. For her, it's the best choice. She is totally computer illiterate, and she had no trouble switching from XP to Win7.
At this point, I would recommend anyone running XP to upgrade to Win7. Avoid Win8 for the time being (and maybe forever). But Win7 is the best version of Windows available.