AT
And it didn't need Win 8 since I don't plan on buying a touchscreen to do mostly typing. 

Rumors are sure difficult to stop.
 
Touch in w8 is like buying a house and getting an extra bathroom. Don't have to use it, but it sure is handy.
 
w8 runs faster on the same hardware as w7. For some programs way faster. Unfortunately, as has always been the case, some hardware has been obsoleted by the manufacturers not creating drivers.
 
Of course, replacing the hierarchical start menu with the app wall was way stupid, but I have configured the desktop to have links to all the most used programs. Same for most of my clients.  They rarely need to display the start/app wall.
 
Lots of small hardware recorders continue to be sold.  Makes sense to be able to adapt any small computer to become a recorder.
 
And so on.