ad 5): heartily agree. To make people stop thinking "cheap beige box loaded with crapware" when they hear Windows, MS should reinforce the "PCs at Mac pricepoi

ad 5): heartily agree. To make people stop thinking "cheap beige box loaded with crapware" when they hear Windows, MS should reinforce the "PCs at Mac pricepoint are just as nice as Macs" image. They did have a "recommend me a nice Windows notebook/desktop" page at some time, but it was kind of half-hearted and hard to find. For example, they could create some "Windows Experience" (i.e. solid usable box) and "Windows Ultimate Experience" (i.e., reassuringly expensive and stylish) badges for notebooks and desktops that: * have decent build quality and conform to current ergonomic standards (wrt. fan noise, panel brightness etc.) * don't include crapware (for some definition of software-that-the-user-doesn't-actually-want; maybe just something like "the OEM does not accept third party influence on the choice of applications", although most PC vendors include software that is simply superfluous.) * have enough RAM/bandwith/CPU to run the current version of MS office The "Ultimate Experience" could carry a further requirement to: * include a current version of MS Office (seriously!) and one of the reassuringly expensive versions of Windows 7 * have nicer-than-usual design and feel (i.e., Thinkpad-quality keyboard on notebooks, desktop PCs that are recognizable and don't look like a beige box).