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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.