Con Zymaris has written an excellent piece on why unbundling Windows from hardware is not a bad thing. I've been wanting to write about this, but Con has done a great job and you are better of reading his argumentation.

The one-line conclusion from this article seems to be "The old approach was unfair, this new approach puts every competitor on an equal footing.". Microsoft will not be put at a disadvantage, it only has to give up an advantage it created for itself.

Well, their is some disadvantage, namely that people will actually see how much they have to pay for Windows.

Frankly I think this is only a temporary situation. In the future one of two things will happen. Or Microsoft starts distributing Windows for free, or someone finds a way to stop Linux from being distributed for free.

Both things are currently happening at the same time. MS is experimenting with selling software on the cheap to developing nations and schools, while at the same time trying to find ways to make money from free applications such as MSN chat and their websites.

They have also started to accuse Linux of invading on their "intellectual property" (whatever that might be). If they can convince the market to pay Microsoft for using Linux they will get an even tighter grip on the software market.
After all MS doesn't really care about what softawre you are using, as long as you are paying them for it.

David Vronay writes in his blog that "One of the first things people notice when they start using Vista is the absence of menu bars." accompanied by this screenshot: .

I won't deny that things have changed, but I wouldn't say there are no menu's left. Not unless you think that a menu bar can't have any icons. Microsoft calls this invention the "command module". I don't see why it's not a menu. Granted, it also has some characteristics of a task-bar, but when you bush a button there's still a menu coming out of it.
So the claim that Vista does away with menubars is only true if you stick to the strictest definition of menubar. Unfortunatly this claim seems to suggest that menu's have gone altogether, but that is just misleading.