Europeans users made the fatal mistake of being born on the wrong side of the pond. That's true for 2MB upgrades, Express Exchange, support of a lot of software products, special offers of various kinds, 800 phone numbers, postage paid registration cards, money back guarantees ... "Valid only in the U.S.A."
At least, we have CompuServe which acts as a great unifier. I learned first from CompuServe that a 2MB HP 100LX existed while my local HP dealer didn't (want to) know about the 2MB version a few weeks ago and saw no reason to reduce his astronomic price for the 1MB version. I can get support from companies like SemWare or ACE, I can even occasionally read messages from real Microsoft developers that solve real problems while all the Munich hotline offers me is listening to some top twenty hit or MS's `latest' product announcements while on hold ad infinitum. I can contact developers of useful tools or applications, buy their stuff via SWREG and get an amazing 24 hr support from the small guy.
CompuServe is great in this aspect. Unfortunately, you can't expect all that stuff you learn about to be available locally.
Gilles Kohl CompuServe ID: [100114,3146]