The Chinese - who account for about one-fifth of the world’s total population - purchased just 244 copies of Vista within the first two weeks of its launch.

I can’t make much sense of the original site - even using the Babelfish and Google's translator - but according to Gearfuse Microsoft “only managed to sell 244 copies in the whole of China in the first 2 weeks. You heard that right, and that’s the number quoted from the headquarters of the Windows Vista chief distributor in Beijing.”

That overwhelming lack of interest might explain why Dell stepped out of line last week and started offering US customers a choice of either Windows XP or Vista after unprecendented customer demand for the older OS. And it almost certainly explains Bill Gates' announcement of a $3 Operating System + Office bundle for third-world countries.

There's an amusingly over-the-top review of the situation on The Inquirer. Microsoft admits Vista failure begins, "With two overlapping events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows Me Two (Me II), is a joke that no one wants."

Another snippet;

Microsoft has lost its ability to twist arms, and now it is going to die. It can't compete on level ground, so is left with backpedalling and discounts of almost 100 times. What we are seeing is an unprecedented shift of power. It is also an unprecedented admission of failure. And the funniest part about the moves made? They are the wrong things to do. Microsoft is in deep trouble.

And even at $3 a disk, Windows is still way more expensive than Linux - and that's not counting the DRM and software formats lock-in.