I do not understand why one would buy a unix based laptop, only to load an emulator on it to run windoze XP so they can run the software they actually need.
Specialised applications aside (and yes LH2 you are an exceptionally competent geek
) unix on these tiny laptops is good for basically one thing which is running a browser.
I know one can get lots of free software for Linux etc but one can get lots of free software for windoze too
and here we are talking about aviation related stuff.
My guess is that M$ are flogging XP very cheaply to these manufacturers, because the price premium on the XP versions seems minimal.