Budman,

It is - unfortunately - not so simple.

I would suggest that you go to your nearest Walmart, K-Mart, Sears, Best-Buy, etc. and try to buy a non-Windows PC. And by this I mean a regular, plain-vanilla PC. (as opposed to Apple's offerings - which I don't object to - but we're talking about PC's here.)

OK, so people like YOU and I know enough about this stuff to nuke Vista and install whatever we darn well please - but we're NOT the "typical retail user" either. These poor sods get whatever they're given - like it or lump it - and they have to make do.

I have been looking at the major retailers and - no surprise here! - they're selling Vista virtually exclusively... And it's entirely likely that (shades of Microsoft Monopoly again here) - Microsoft is enforcing this by requiring the OEM/VAR's to ship with Vista or else loose their bulk licensing to ship and sell the O/S...

Jim
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