The Tosh I bought for 250 last fall came with Widders 8.1 and .. Well, I'm getting used to it.. First thing I did was make it as much like XP as possible.
My personal preference is for Thinkpads, over Tosh Satellies. and it sounds like your computer guy is offereing you a decent package. DO NOT Loose that widdeers 8 CD though. you may some day need it. I do not know how long Microsoft will continue to support 7.. they have a tendency to cut short the mandatory support period.
For E-Mail.. Please consider using web-mail.. THE Reason: I won't say it is impossible to get a virus past web based e-mail hosts, but.. It's not easy.
And with Web-Mail your mail account is automatically "Synced" across all your computers including the one you "Borrow" at the library, the one you have not bought yet and your friends' you borrow when yours is in the shop.
Since it's on the web host, not on your computers at all.