Who needs it for that price? I'll probably stick with XP Pro on my Centrino Duo notebook. I think it's a bad move for Microsoft to make it so expensive. When XP came out, it was desperately needed upgrade/improvement over Win98. Vista may be a big upgrade from XP, but XP works pretty good. It's stable and most of the bugs are fixed by now. Why would you want to start all over again? Microsoft is also just starting to face some actual (potential) competition from Apple. I know it's miniscule right now, but there is some momentum building of people beginning to switch thanks to the Ipod and Intel chips. An expensive OS from Microsoft certainly won't help those considering a switch. I think the piracy issue is a real concern, but more of a thorn in Microsoft's side. Pirated software sells for $2. It's hard to compete with $2. In Asia, where the problem is massive, national scale, piracy is seen as a right. People have no sense of stealing. They just do it. Not to mention that legitimate software often isn't even for sale in a given country. How can someone buy legitimate software if it's not for sale? If programs like Windows, Photoshop, Office were widely available for under $50, perhaps piracy would start to dwindle. In these countries internet access is still uncommon and extremely expensive - so the internet is not yet a viable solution. And yes, they know what country you are in. They could determine that you are in such and such a country and therefore you get a certain low price discount. I tried two Online music stores, downloade their software, browsed the catalogs and was told that I couldn't buy music because of the country I am in. I live in a high piracy country. Only Microsoft Music will sell me music online. I wanted this to be short. Sorry for getting carried away.
