YES! Re:Short answer: no (Score 0)

They did it before for WinME.
1. Release WinME that is worse than Win98 and make all users angry.
2. ??? (Release WinXP)
3. Profit.

"%s/WinXP/Windows7/g"
"%s/Win98/WinXP/g"
"%s/WinME/VISTA/g"

I think that this model only works for monopolies though.