>Indeed - why not make a $2500 MSDN subscription compulsory to develop for the Windows desktop. After all if you are writing apps you can afford it.

You're being sarcastic, but it would a possible move too. And yes, if you're writing apps you can afford it. It's not like Windows has too few apps, anyway, the could use the price as a quality control to throw one-man software companies out (there goes 99% of shareware).