"Ann Dunham" wrote

| The question is related to the fact that if you go to any "computer" store
| in the USA (Costco, Best Buy, Frys, whatever), and you buy a computer (not
| a tablet or chromebook), you're not going to get Windows-anything-but-10
on
| it by default.
|

Technically true, for the average person who
thinks Best Buy is the place to get a computer.
But I just built a new box with Win7, using a
perfectly legal disk bought online. And I saw a
2-page ad, I think it was in the NYT at Christmas,
in the business section, for Dell. One page was
Win10. One page was Win7. Dell is still targetting
Win7 at business because business in general is
avoiding Win10. Corporate IT people can't afford
to be running hundreds of beta boxes that update
themselves willy nilly to who-knows-what, and
only "enterprise" licensees are fully free to prevent
that.

It's a similar situation to Vista/7. XP disks were
still available for a long time. XP is probably still
available. The difference this time is that business
is so strongly resisting the Win10 services model
that Win7 has to be available at retail. I don't know
the details -- whether Dell is pressuring MS or
whether MS is discreetly giving Dell the OK. But
Dell is selling Win7 machines. I wouldn't be surprised
if other companies are doing the same.

Years ago Bill Gates said that he knew the
Chinese were "stealing" Windows, but he figured
he'd make them pay eventually, and in the meantime
he preferred that they steal Windows rather than
something else. The monopoly was paramount.
It's probably similar with Win7: They plan to
institute a services kiosk machine by hook or by
crook. They'll wait as long as it takes. In the
meantime, they don't want anyone getting used
to going without Windows.

I'm curious why the question is so important
to you.