I won a G5 too. Mine hasn't got here yet (supposed to arrive today). I hope when I have to claim it on my taxes next year they don't say it is worth $2500. That kindof makes me upset. I was expecting the $2500 machine too. Maybe if enough of us put up a stink, we can get them to remedy the situation.

John Swensen
jpswensen atatat comcast dotdotdot net

I'll bet if you got it on Slashdot that they didn't deliver, we'd all be getting calls next week. It's possible it is just the promo company that is short changing us and the IBM and Terrasoft have no idea. Lets stir up the water a little bit.

I just sent an email to Terrasoft (the ones supplying the computers). They said that Einson ordered the wrong ones and they didn't realize that the ones they ordered were to be used for the contest. They said that if they had caught it they would have called up Einson and shipped the right ones. It looks like we might just get the resolved after all. I will keep you updated on what I find out. Terrasoft forwarded my email to the person in charge of the contest at IBM and will be contacting Einson. Hope this helps!

John Swensen

If needed I have the email from Einson saying "sux2bu have a nice day". Along with that there was some useful info - if it's not fixed, the computers will be taxed at $2000, and they will be on the 2005 taxes (so no worries if you are going to do taxes early this year.)

It didn't occur to me to contact Terrasoft, although I was pondering contacting IBM. Good catch - keep me updated on what happens. :)

Here's the latest I have found out from a Terrasoft person "I received a call yesterday from IBM. They told me to look for Einson Freeman to send me a statement regarding changes in the contest prize. haven't seen it yet. What it boiled down to is Apple product changes. I will forward the statement to you once I receive it." So it looks like we might get the short end of the stick after all. I haven't even opened mine yet since I don't want that to be a reason for not being able to swap it. I live in the same town Terrasoft is located, so I might try to see if they will let me pay $500 and switch.

Umm... Terrasoft has offered the $2500 G5 for $2500 since before the contest started. Ohwell. See original story then. (And if you end up talking to IBM, ask them if the $1k prizes were downgraded to $800...) Einson tried to tell me it was "shipping fees" and such, which don't amount to $500 and cannot be included in the estimated -retail- value anyway... (its considered contest overhead.)

I think we can get this slashdotted. This is the sort of crap that gets techie people peeved (and the stuff that slashdot loves to run with). And I don't think IBM is going to put up with the bad press over a few thousand dollars. They'll most likely have the problems solved by the next day. I asked Terrasoft if they would be willing to let me upgrade by paying them $500, but I haven't heard back yet. I'll let you know what I find out.

Submitted and rejected the other day. :( But feel free to try it, maybe I just worded it wrong or whatever. If people start linking to this, that'll bring it up on google 'linuxonpower' searches. ;) Although.. actually.. looks like I'm almost the first link anyway. Heh. (Not on the first page for Linux on Power though.)

At the least, I think we can ensure that Einson Freeman will never get another promotions contract from IBM again. I guess with a $150 RAM upgrade, the computer will be fairly nice, just not what I expected. Or, I might try to sell it on ebay. Looks like there are quite a few others of the same model up for sale.

So.. anyone got anything new on this?

I'm also a winner of one of the $2500 PowerMac's that they didn't send us. I took some time and created a couple of PDFs about my experience. I sent the shorter one (just over two pages) to Robert_MacFarlan (at) us.ibm.com since he seems to be the one who got the contest through management according to http://www-1.ibm.com/servers/eserver/linux/power/features/contest.html I would love to send my PDF to more people at IBM, only problem is I can't FIND anyone else at IBM who seems to have anything to do with the contest, as the one we just participated in was completely outsourced by the looks of it. If anyone has any more info about who we can contact or how we can get the $500 that was stolen from us, send me an email at nathan.stocks (at) gmail (dot) com

I participated in the Linux on Power programming contest sponsored by IBM that ended in early December last year. It was a very emotionally draining experience. Here's the very short version of my experience: I found out about it, worked...