"...where, exactly are you planning on getting them from, DELL?"

As a matter of fact, yes, I do plan on getting them from Dell. I don't care who writes them or where Dell gets the drivers. If Dell sells a system with XP on it, they'll include a CD driver with the system and have the drivers on their web site. Have you ever bought a Dell, or dealt with their corporate-level support?

"IF Microsoft ... doesn't allow the OEM to write drivers..."

Why would MS not allow vendors to write a driver? Hardware vendors already have the XP code they need to write drivers. How could MS prevent it?