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The PC manufacturer is urging customers to take advantage of a "loophole" in the Vista licensing agreement that allows the company to continue selling systems pre-installed with Windows XP even after yesterday's cut-off date.

But instead of referring to it using Microsoft's preferred terminology of "downgrade rights", Dell has branded the scheme "Windows Vista Bonus", implying that it doesn't see XP as a downgrade at all.

Indeed, the Dell blog is heaped with fulsome praise for XP, whilst Vista is merely referred to as its "harshly debated predecessor" - although we assume this a Freudian slip, and Dell actually meant successor.

"Can this be right? After more than a year of dodging the EOL [end of life]

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bullet, Microsoft Windows XP finds itself square in the iron sights of its long and harshly debated predecessor [sic], Vista," the Dell Channel blog reads.

"The curtain has fallen, and the credits are rolling, but how does the crowd feel about the show? Or better yet, what do they think of the sequel?"

"It's been a good run for XP, who's been touted as the longest shipping (2001-2008) and most widely accepted operating system Microsoft has put out to date," Dell's channel liaison representative Michael Bukowski continues.

"It's also, as far as I can remember, the only OS that's actually created a public outcry, endorsing its temporary pardon from joining the inevitable resting place of Windows 95, 98, 2000, etc... But as they say, all good things must come to an end, and it's an end that XP has finally found."

And to add further salt to the wound, Dell even lays out the welcome mat for Windows 7. "With rumors of Windows 7 visible, but not quite distinguishable, on the horizon; Vista's victory over XP may be short lived, although you'll have to stay tuned for more on that one."

With friends like Dell, who needs enemies?