My bil wants to buy two new laptops for himself and his wife. Both are fairly computer illiterate. Does he have to get Win8? I suggested they get a Kindle Fire, but they want good, easy-to-use keyboards for emailing friends and family. The wife uses Word and he attempts to use Excel for his company (he is a salesman for a paper company).

Barge Pole comes to mind...
Win 8 does run all the classic office applications, BUT is rather ruined by the interface formally known as Metro.
Great for large touch screens, but a waste on more common home PC machines.

Unless he can find a clearance or refurb machine, he will have to get Win 8. He can downgrade afterwards, but it makes little sense.