i honestly dont know...he COULD just download the 1.8 beta...

Ok so basically your freind has to have a account to ok. Now you need to go to the minecraft website where you download minecraft go up the downloads section and download minecraft server.exe. Ok once you have done that you have two choices port forward which can be quite hard and it all depends on what router you have or you can use a program called hamachi download that program and then run it once you have it open go to networks and click new network and then enter the name you want to call it. Now once you have created your network your freind has to download it and connect to you network name tojoin a network go to the network tab and click join exsisting network and then just type in the name of the network and password.
Ere nearly done now ok once your freind has joined your hamachi and there is a secure connection (if you have a green dot next to his name that means it is secure connection) run the server.exe you downloaded earlier wait for that to load up and get your freind to connect to your hamachi ip ( to find your hamachi ip open hamachi and it will be right below your name) on minecraft servers and he should connect. If you need anymore help just pm me