Microsoft is giving computer manufacturers a steep discount on their Windows XP Home Edition to install into ultra low-cost PCs (ULPCs), in hopes of luring them away from Linux.

There is a limitation however, the specs of the ULPCs that can avail of the discounted XP are: 10.2 inches in screen size, 80GB and under HDD, the computers must also not have more than 1GB RAM or a 1.0 GHz single-core processor, and come without touch-screen technology. These limitations help ensure that the ultra cheap laptops won’t eat into the market for mainstream PCs running Windows Vista.