Microsoft denies it profits from Vista-to-XP downgrades - Business - Macworld UK
Dell, for example, adds an extra $20 to the price to downgrade a PC.
Microsoft, however, may profit from the way it structures downgrade rights. Only buyers of PCs with pre-installed editions of Vista Business and Vista Ultimate can downgrade, and then only to Windows XP Professional .
All three editions are higher-priced versions of their respective lines, a fact that the lawsuit mentioned in passing.
"Customers have been forced to purchase the most expensive version of [Windows XP] in order to 'downgrade' from the Windows Vista operating system," the complaint read.That was the cause of some confusion last year, when Dell Inc. was accused of gouging customers by charging $150 to downgrade a new computer to XP.
What is all this nonsense about downgrade rights?
Surely the owner of a PC is entitled to run whatever operating system he or she desires without asking for permission from Microsoft or the manufacturer, or paying a premium to do so.
It's laughable the number of different versions of Vista there are, when one version of OSX does it all. And at a cheaper price.
If I buy a new Mac now and want to run an earlier version of OSX I don't need permission from Apple to do so.