<quote><p>How can this be legal and not an abuse of their monopoly power?</p><p>Aside from the fact you can turn it off ( for now ) it still sounds like a clear case of abuse to me and someone should be talking to an attorney about this.</p></quote>
The simple fact that it can be turned off defeats your argument. Plus, are you so naive to believe that no one, i.e. Microsoft, Symantec/Verisign, Red Hat, etcetera have not properly vetted this with legal counsel?
In any case, vendors who make the hardware are the only ones who could be sued. Microsoft can make any software they want. If the vendors don't make adjustments to their hardware to facilitate its operation, then that is the end of it. Second, vendors can make any hardware they want. They are under no legal obligation to make any specific hardware that suits any specific environment. Failure to do so may well cost them money; however, they are legally allowed to do so.
This is just another example of the FOSS being a day late and a dollar short again. This entire scenario was announced nearly 18 months ago. What did the FOSS do? As usually, nothing. Procrastination is its own punishment.