namely the consumer demand powers the fact that Microsoft has a virtual monopoly.
I understand that manufacturers want to preinstall windows on every laptop instead of doing that on demand in 95% of them.
I have no problem in getting a system with windows eXPired on it, as long as I can get a refund if I refuse to accept the license. Whenever vendors (or ms) find time spent with refunds is not balanced in time saved by preinstalling, they'll stop preinstalling on every computer. But if I can't get a refund (wasting my time over it), the virtual monopoly is no more virtual: the market has no chance to change, as those with different expectations have no means to voice them.
Therefore, I think they can escape the request to not preinstall, but they can't escape the request to allow refund. Refusing to refund the OS license should be banned by antitrust rules, IMHO -- and, at least in Italy, they refuse refunding whenever someone tries that path.
BTW: Bundling hardware and software is very different than bundling the air conditioner with every new car. Marketing two versions of a car only to please those few obsolete guys like me is costly, and remocing the conditioner on demand is _very_ costly. Software on the other hand is pure information, it's not a "product" as they shout around (calling themselves the "software industty"). Moreover, the computer vendor is not (currently) the same as the software vendor, and windows is not specific to their hardware, so they can't claim the two are unseverable like the air conditioner in a car is.
[sorry if this remark is obvious, unfortunately I see the comparison with physical products like cars to be too easily brought in]
/alessandro