Almost no one actually buys Windows as a standalone product. If you purchase a new PC from HP, Dell, Acer, etc it comes with it. If you have a Win10 PC or license then Win11 is a free upgrade. The are even several Microsoft 365 SKUs that come with Win11 licensing.

You can literally d/l it direct from Microsoft and run it without a license; you just have to deal with a small licensing message and a few inconveniences in the UI.

The only people buying it as a standalone seem to be business idjuts who went to a store and bought a retail PC with Win11 Home that then find out they need Pro in order to Entra join / AD join the hardware. Those people deserve what they pay so I have no sympathy for them.

If you buy a desktop PC rather than build your own, you probably already paid the Windows license

But really, the $139 Windows 11 price isn't where it's actually pricy: Windows Server licenses are make thousands of dollars, typically do not come with the hardware, and Linux can do that workload too.

That's where the real savings comes... As long as you have admins who know how to manage Linux servers...

Network effect is strong in this one