[Arkinsaw]

what are they going to do? sue a company for selling hardware?

For the machines that do have Windows, they could stop giving discounts...they could withhold the little "Designed For Windows XP" logo sticker that goes on the PC. They could ask their retail chain not to carry PC's without the little Window logos. They could pressure partners not to do business with naked PC manufacturers.

Some of this would be unfair restraint of trade if they came right out and did it, but they can apply a lot of pressure subtly.

[Echo Talon]

if they did something like this they would lose in court. i build/assemble my own computers anyhow

[bigdcaldavis]

Nintendo tried stuff like this back in the 1980s with the NES, such as refusing to ship their products to any store which sold either competitor game systems (such as Sega and Atari) or unlicensed NES games (such as from Tengen and Wisdom Tree). They even tried to threaten stores which sold the Game Genie for the NES.