So, they've been up to no good again, have they?

It doesn't surprise me.

Please can you stop printing articles that say "Microsoft has done a bad thing" because that takes up about half of the Register and I just don't have time to trawl through the headlines, never mind read all the articles.

... and Sequestering of QEFunding?

Given the Facility XP delivers Programmers to Take Over AIRemote Control of Core Net Services, a Fully Patched Well Used XP Clone would be a New Turing BetaTested Copy for Virtualised Servicing and Replacement of the Toxic Perverting Banked Wealth Driver with ITs Obscenely Rich Pickings for Spending Model ........ to Satisfy Customers Wishes........ and therefore not a Copy but a Newly XXXXPerienced Private Pirate Operating Systems Driver ......... for IT is just an Interface/GUI for Advanced Human Readable Virtual AIMachinery Network InterNetworking in Prime Time and Connected Space Zones via IP Address/Intellectual Property Search .................for Live Operational Virtual Environments.

Work, Rest and Play Zones for Cosmic Pioneers in Universal Travel through Innovative Networks.

For those Superlative Red Letter Days in Purple Patches ....... with Double Whammys of Outrageous Good Fortune. :-)

*Are they not Fatally Compromised and Unmasked as Beings in Constant Conflict with the Rabid Maintenance and Protection of Accumulated Wealth as Stakeholder, and as Supposed New Age Driver Empowered with Currency Supply to Generate New Wealth Drivers. The Two Roles are Diametrically Opposed to Each Other and Deliver Practically Nothing and Precious Little ..... as has been much in Evidence and is surely Undeniable, and Shining an Inquisitive Light into that Opaque Bubble/Paste Bauble sees Rats a'scampering from the SMART Brightness for the Darkness and Cold Shadows.

It really should be an EU law that software may only be removed from sale if it is provided for free download.

If it _really_ has no value, then the company aren't going to mind...

Could Microsoft just claim that they stopped XP sales to "give the other blokes a chance"?

"It accused Microsoft of stopping XP sales to to retailers and OEMs (Original Equipment Makers), even though there was continued demand for the older operating system."

Lemme get this straight. Company provides a popular product. 8 years later, company decides to stop providing this product, and is supplying 2 "new versions" which are available. Whatever your opinions of XP, Vista & Windows 7 are, surely this is a matter for Microsoft, not the Russian FAS? Since when does a competition committee force a company to continue a product they want to discontinue because "the people want to buy it from you"?

If this is generally the case, then I'm going to get a committee to force Snickers to go back to being Marathons, because "there is a continued demand for the older name...."

'Since when does a competition committee force a company to continue a product they want to discontinue because "the people want to buy it from you"?'

When you are a recognised monopoly that forces your product onto every PC sold regardless of whether the purchasers of said PC's want it or not, that's when.

HTH

Perhaps a bit easier than in the UK or US. I can pick up a copy of whatever OS i want from the CD/DVD market for a couple of hundred roubles (say $5 max). Quite often comes on a DVD several versions of Windows, all pre-cracked and ready to roll. Normally both EN and RU versions on the disks and sometimes with several versions of office.

Strangely enough the guys there don't normally sell disks with Linux on them! I have to get those from a legal outlet or download!

I really wish they would crack down on this sort of thing though. The less available pirated copies of Windows are the more people will move to Linux :-)