Assuming he really wants to learn how to record and at least produce a demo, he will also have to have some production capabilities for mixing/mastering (a.k.a production).
If he wants that, he'll have quite a few things to be concerned with, like sound card, monitors and at least some room treatment. Not to mention a lot of learning. And the computer is probably the least of his worries.
I'm starting to regret jumping into this, as one of my goals in helping others is to educate
I don't think anyone treated you poorly in this thread or objected to your trying to present your opinion. So I don't see what to regret here.
I do object to statements that I consider cliche and, frankly, false or misleading. Namely, the whole "just works" thing. I have three Windows machines currently - an Atom-powered Surface (which is my main computer for the day job and for live use), an 8 year old Asus notebook and a Core i7 Intel NUC at home for some more complex mixing/mastering. The latter is the size of a Mac Mini but beats the crap out of it in terms of capabilities. The former is a tablet with the convenience of a touch screen, but with the ability to run Ableton. And all three "just work". For years. I didn't do anything in terms of tweaking the Surface. The NUC required installing Windows, which is easy to do these days. The Asus did require some work, which is needed for many Windows machines to work reliably over the years. Right after I bought it, I uninstalled all the OEM crapware. Granted, for a person who knows nothing about computers, this may be tricky somewhat, but more than double. It you can stop by a Microsoft Store and make it a Signature PC.
I've had tons of problems with Apple products though - mostly iOS based, but Macs, too. They also have problems with device drivers, applications crash, they get slow etc. And hardware failures aren't that rare. They are very good but not immune to problems.
They do provide ports useful for music production that may be difficult to find on PCs though.