I agree .. W7 is as good if not better than Vista. I equate it to going from Vista -> W7 is like going from 2000-> XP. There were lot's of platform changes between Vista and XP so there were bound to be a lot of issues. W7 is getting some of those wrinkles. I've loaded W7 on a laptop that used to run XP and it is faster. It would be good if you could get W7 for $50 .. that will not happen. MS would sell a whole lot more though if they did that .... probably put a damper on a lot of pirated versions and that in the long run would make MS money instead of losing it to Pirates.
It is for real deal all except this is for an 'upgrade' and not a fresh install. Typically these kind of upgrades have issues and it is better to perform a fresh install.
I'ma pretend I understood all that.
Thanks Big T. 
Companies like Dell and HP, which sell the vast majority of Windows licenses, already pay around $50/license the last time I checked. Microsoft isn't all that concerned about selling OS upgrades, with the vast majority of corporations either signing up for Software Assurance or simply upgrading as part of their procurement and replacement schedule.
As for piracy, Microsoft already offers Windows in those countries at an affordable price point. It hasn't really done a whole lot to stem the tide of piracy there.
vivek
I have been testing Windows 7. It's much better than Vista.