"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...

In the UK, Windows is mainly "sold by" the retailer/maker attitude,
"That's
what the PC comes with, Sir. It is a part of the package price. We don't
sell the hardware without it." You can perhaps choose XP rather than 7,
but what if you don't want either, or any version of Windows, but want
the hardware?

Hmm. Interesting. The situation is very different here, probably because
a variety of language versions have to be offered. So you can specify
Swedish/Danish/Norwegian/Finnish OS either XP, Vista, or 7. You can
also buy a system (at reduced cost) without an OS.
That seems a lot fairer to me.

This is veering OT, I suppose. But perhaps we can at least get a strained
link by noting that MacOS these days is in some ways a commercial BSD
distro IIUC. :-)

People's discontent with Vista has been good for Mac. Keith is one
of the many who made the change, and are now enjoying the benefits
of a stable OS, with less resemblance to a Swiss cheese and less
vulnerability to viruses.