Ad

Tuesday, November 01, 2011

Buying Software Online

I just bought the Adobe Production Premium Creative Suite (taking advantage of the 50% offer that ended yesterday!) and they gave me the option to download it, or get it delivered for $5.99 more. I chose the $5.99 physical disc option for a number of reasons:

  • I could wait the week they predicted it would take to deliver.
  • I still find the idea of having something physical somehow comforting.
  • I wasn't sure how much space I needed to be able to install it, and didn't want to be juggling things while in the middle of a download.
  • It predicted that the download would take 9 hours.

That last one was a killer, but it wasn't the only factor.

I've already bought software through Apple's Mac App store (and iOS apps through iTunes) so it's not like I'm entirely new to buying software online. However, the idea of downloading the whole suite just seemed like a potential for a nightmare. Couple that with the fact that it was unclear how the download worked; did it come as one big chunk or separate parts? could I download it again later if I had a problem or wanted to reinstall it? It wasn't immediately obvious how Adobe's system worked or what the answer was, and being in the middle of completing the transaction I took the easy way out.

Had it allowed me to download the individual parts as, and when, I wanted to - rather than download and install the whole thing at once - I think I would have gone for the download option. And the funny thing is, for all I know, Adobe might allow this; but it wasn't clear from the choices they gave me, how that all worked. So I wimped out.


Soon, we won't even have the option of getting physical dics. I might have to frame those discs, or store them away to show the grandchildren. I just hope my broadband speed has improved by then...

No comments: