Oh now I see why you compare Bill Gates with a war mongering totalitarian dictator modelled after Josef Stalin. At first I thought you were just being irrational.
Not that this stale issue hasn't been argued before, but yes, Dell and Gateway preferred to keep the discount on MS products rather than buying MS products at the same price everyone else does. Your anger in this case is completely misplaced and should instead be against Dell and Gateway for not offering a more expensive MS-free product.
Sorry I misunderstood. I guess you DON'T know the difference between persuasion and brute force. Pity.