[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by Berny That's not correct. The most common reason PPL are using Vista [Bill Gates' Bush moment] is it comes pre loaded on a lot of new computers and you don't have a choice if you want one of those. And to accommodate this, MS did deals with builders to pre-to load the operating system and not provide discs. If you have OS problems, you must go back to your seller to get warrantee which keeps you in their sights for add-ons. They can also add promotional style default home pages etc., to further indoctrinate [and frustrate] the new owner. It also gave the builders the opportunity to do deals with program suppliers like Norton etc., and load trial programs which need additional payments to be activated. They bank on the fact that the average Joe wont know how to resolve this scam without making the purchase = more $$$$$$ This outrageous audacity has come back to bite them as it well should have, because it causes new owners, who not only need to learn a new computer, and an excessively and unnecessarily complicated OS, which in itself in a huge PITA, but also to resolve these shonky temporary add-on issues without shelling out even more hard earned cash. Marketing gone mad. What a joke!!!! .

1) you can get the XP "downgrade" on business machines. You can also purchase XP seperately.
2) you can uninstall the trial programs. There's nothing that says you have to use them. One handy tool gets rid of everything in one shot: http://www.yorkspace.com/pc-de-crapifier/