I was just looking at purchasing another HP laptop. I see I can still order them with windows 7 professional vs. getting 8.1. Last night I was reading many articles that said 8.1 is fine now and it's recommended. I have 7 now and am happy with it. Unfortunately, I bought my computer with Vista just a few months too soon and had to buy windows 7.
I guess I started looking since I can get 1T for less than I spent on my current laptop. I've bought an external hard drive and 1T Seagate backup. However, I did not realize the backup would not do anything connected on a USB cable. So all my work I've moved isn't getting backed up. I thought also I can dedicate the new computer to my artwork and leave the old one for facebook, emails and searches. Those things that can get a virus like I've had to deal with before. I'm leaning towards getting 8.1. Hopefully they have fixed many of the problems of 8.