A year ago today, Microsoft pulled the plug on Windows XP, no longer selling new copies in most venues. The June 30 kill date for XP followed a six-month outcry from users about Windows Vista, with demands that Microsoft keep XP available alongside Vista for the many users who were frustrated by ease-of-use, compatibility, and retraining issues.

Who in their right mind will purchase Windows 7 at these prices?

The answer is of course is that Windows will not be sold at that price. Instead Microsoft will use its OEM monopoly control to fix prices so that it is priced to undercut competitors in any area they make an inroad by offering low OEM prices with conditions attached such as hardware spec. price etc. and offering rebates so that OEMs effectively are paid by Microsoft to keep competitors off preloaded systems. They are doing exactly this on netbooks and nettops right now, and there is a long suspicion that the reluctance of the likes of Dell and HP to advertise or aggressively sell Linux PCs and laptops that are preloaded with Linux in the past is due to such market manipulation.