Microsoft further confuse their market

Not content with five different versions of Vista, Microsoft further muddy the waters with Office 2007.

We set up a computer for a client last week. All new machines from our suppliers come preinstalled with a 60 day trial version of Office 2007. It's just a matter of paying for, and registering a licence key.

Or so it appears.

If you choose to buy the Home and Student Edition, however. IT'S A DIFFERENT BLOODY PRE-INSTALL!!!!!!!!!

So, we have to tell our supplier which version of Office the client is going to want to install.

Doesn't that defeat the purpose of preinstalling the thing in the first place?

I'm also uneasy about not getting media for OEM stuff. Microsoft's "buy a backup disk" policy is cumbersome, time consuming and expensive for Microsoft.

It's another example of big IT vendors being penny wise and pound foolish. They might save a few bucks in stopping people re-using OEM disks, but their increased support costs and the generally irritation is going cost them far more.

In fact, I'm so irritated by it, I'm recommending people try Open Office or the Google apps.