What has been said:

820.1. Joseph Hoetzl (03/11/2009 10:05 AM)

Just curious why you bought Office and not just Outlook.

While I am no fan of the IBM site either, I've come across this with many other sites - go ahead and try to buy Xenapp server from Citrix, or is it XenDesktop, or something else. At this point, I'd be happy if they just called me back. I filled in their pre-sales form with all my contact info...

And after you get Xen'd, try and buy Rightfax from Captaris, err. Open Text (Rightfax) or what was that product again?

Bottom line, it is stunning how difficult it can be to give companies your money. Maybe they should just have donate buttons and let us download what we want...

820.2. Paul Hudson (11/03/2009 10:46)

A great pair of articles. I think they highlight some of problems with the IBM site. However, all's not plain sailing on the Microsoft side. Microsoft have a scheme for education called 'Ultimate Steal'. He's how frustrating ordering from Microsoft can be:

Buying Vista

820.3. Ben Langhinrichs (03/11/2009 11:07 AM)

Joseph - I need other parts of Office for testing purposes, and it wasn't terribly expensive to get it all.

Paul - My intent was really never to prove that Microsoft did this better - just to try to experience this as anb outsider might. Unfortunately, in this specific test, Microsoft did come out looking significantly better, but I understand that it would not on all tests.

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