[Link:
http://www.nationalreview.com/derbyshire/derbyshireprint103001.html]National Review article[/link]
"Going from 98 to ME back in February was enough of a headache.
Actually, it was mainly a hardware headache. When I tried to run the install for my trusty old Hewlett Packard 4100C scanner, it crashed ME so comprehensively I had to restore to factory defaults. I called HP. Oh, yeah, they said, there's a patch. Downloaded the patch, tried to install again: same crash. Called HP again: "Oh yeah, there's a disk you need." Bought the goddam disk. Ran it: Same crash. Called HP. They had me check the part number printed on the disk label. "Yep, that's the part number for the ME installer, can't understand why it doesn't work for you..." Meanwhile, I had been scrutinizing the disk. Burned into the inner ring around the center hole was a part number different from the one printed on the label. It was, in fact, the part number of the old install software. HP had just stuck a new label, with a new part number printed on it, on to the old ME-crashing install disk! I called them up and explained this. The seventh or eighth techie understood my point. I asked for a replacement. Got it: Same problem. Another: The same. Called them. I was shunted off to the Distribution Center, which sounded as if it was in somewhere like Bangladesh. After another seven or eight attempts, I got the problem explained. They would "research" it. Seven months later, HP is still "researching" how to get a label saying "part number X" on to a disk that actually contains part number X.
Furious with HP, I went out and bought another scanner, an Epson 1240U. No way I was ever going to buy HP again!