I think part of it is what M$ will do. They don't want you using their stuff.

You pay a premium of a few cents and you can have a DVD and use it's name. USB is the same. They are plug in and play devices and work. Out of the box, no installation because as a standard everyone can use the drivers and it works.

M$ wouldn't be like that with their standards, they would most likely use there normal bullying business practices and simply say no, sorry. It would kill off development to M$ developers and Vista and their new Home server are prime examples of that level of expertise. Would you want them being the only ones to control a standard. Like how IE mangled the internet. how Vista with the world already using graphiocs and file sharing and networks and copying and pasting etc. Yet they can't even work within existing standards without messing that up.

It's not that it is free, it is that other people outside M$ had a hand in making it standard. 50 companies that run the world meeting to discuss something or one bunch of Rtards that think Vista works. Do the math.