I actually believe that the opposite makes more sense -- make it free for consumers, but charge the OEMs a small(er) fee, since the OEMs are where all the sales

I actually believe that the opposite makes more sense -- make it free for consumers, but charge the OEMs a small(er) fee, since the OEMs are where all the sales are at. I'm pretty sure almost all the Windows revenues nowadays come from the OEMs, not from the boxed sales.