oddsod - 1:15 pm on Jan 31, 2007 (gmt 0)

Far be it from me to come to Microsoft's defence but as a UK business I'd charge UK customers a lot more than US ones.

My UK offices are staffed by UK employees and I pay UK taxes on this part of the operation. These taxes are substantially above what a similar business faces in the US. Don't look at just consumption taxes (like VAT), look at the bigger picture. My employees here pay income tax just like the Americans do. But there's an additional 23.8% national insurance for each employee. That's a huge chunk and is equivalent to an American paying all his taxes and then .... his employer paying them all over again. My business rates are higher, my usual business expenses - from fuel for transport to business insurance - are highly inflated because the government takes a big cut. Here in the UK a business that sends a few technicians to London every day spends over £1,500 a year each in "congestion charges". Sure there are local costs in every country that push prices up a bit but nowhere is it so bad as here in the UK. And to pay all those taxes UK offices have to charge their customers more.

Sure, there's some rip-off Britain. Blame some of that on greedy businesses, but let's not forget that there's a lot of blame to be laid on ridiculous, silly, punitive and unfair taxes.

As Marcia says, you can get an OEM copy cheaper. However, I believe there are some new restrictions and you can't get it with a minor component like a FDD, you have to buy a MoBo.