Microsoft tries to bribe Best Buy employees to learn lies about Linux
By Mike Ferro
Microsoft has been targeting the OS competition this year in order to prepare for the release of Windows 7. Mac and Linux have been coming under fire from Microsoft lately with a barrage of ad campaigns and patent schemes. After the leak of the Best Buy training material onto the Web recently, more information has been revealed indicating that Microsoft is bribing Best Buy employees with a little incentive to take the training.
We recently covered a story where an alleged Best Buy employee leaked training information in which Microsoft distorts the truth about the capabilities of Linux. According to Gizmodo, it has been confirmed that Microsoft has indeed provided Best Buy with questionable training software that talks about the difference between Windows 7 and Linux.
The reason I say that its questionable is because the training material contains distorted selective truths about Linux. For example according to the training material, Linux is less safe than Windows 7, and won’t work with cameras, and MP3 players. First of all the Windows operating system will almost always be less safe then any other OS out there. This is due to the fact so many hackers have honed in on Windows.
Also, secondly there are literally tons of MP3 players out on the Web that fully work with Linux without any compatibility issues. The training material even goes on to indicate that Linux can’t run World of Warcraft, which is hogwash as gamers have been running it for a couple years now.
According to Gizmodo, Microsoft is bribing Best Buy employees to take the questionable training by offering Windows 7 for only $10. Considering the fact that Windows 7 will run you anywhere from $200 to $300, this offer is highly unusual.
Back in August, Microsoft formally acknowledged that Linux was a serious threat. Since then, Microsoft tried to instigate a patent war between patent trolls and Linux. The company is now trying to bribe Best Buy employees to learn distorted truths about Linux. I understand that Microsoft believes that this is the right thing to do in a competitive market, but as the largest software company in the world a bit of professionalism wouldn’t hurt.
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September 14th, 2009
Why is Microsoft so concerned with Linux’ supposed 1% market share? Why would Microsoft even care?
Unless of Linux IS a concern to Microsoft….maybe they know something we don’t?
September 14th, 2009
Windows is my favorite OS is the only thing i like from Microsoft i hate Linux is too complicated to use and boring. As for MAC I’m not that rich to buy that. I want to buy a MAC one day. Because it looks so damn awesome in everything.
September 14th, 2009
Fact is more and more people are turning to Linux everyday, many Window users are doing dual booting with both Linux and windows.
With Linux there are no concerns with expensive anti-virus software slowing down your system and draining your wallet. Too bad Windows never solved that problem.
No need to spend $1800 on a new Mac when Linux will do just fine. Besides being free, there are thousand of free apps that run on Linux…yep…just free for the asking.
I typical Linux install takes 25 minutes, Windows can take one hour to almost 21 hours (per a article on Windows Blorge) after all the updates and security patches (and there are many of them!) ……..are finally done.
Then cough up another $80 for antivirus (per year) and another $150 to $600 for MS Word
after you drain your wallet…the only concern you have is watching what websites you click on, what email you open up, memory leak, WGA, system restore.
Linux..there are none of those concerns….
Maybe we can see why Microsoft is so concerned about Linux….and THAT is the sincerest for of flattery.
September 14th, 2009
Ralph, firstly you don’t need to spend a penny on AV software or Firewall software. There are plenty of good, free solutions out there. After that, safe surfing is the smart thing to do, regardless of what OS you run. If you are a consumer or student you can get the MS office package for less than $100, not just word, or even better, switch to Open Office for free. Memory leaks haven’t been an issue since Vista, and WGA is only an issue if you have a pirated OS.
How about with Linux wondering if you can get drivers for your hardware? particularly if you have a laptop? Or how do you deal with DRM encoded files? Or how the problems people have logging into online banking with linux? And I won’t even talk about trying to get professional software to run on Linux, which many people have to use on a regular basis such as any adobe software, or cad packages like autocad, or Sage, or Outlook and so on. Linux is great for people who either like to tinker with their PCs or for people who use basic internet browsing and the odd letter writing. For everyone else the only option is either Mac or windows.
September 15th, 2009
@Ralph
Most of issue with Windows is from running the user with admin rights. The most popular FOSS packages also run on Windows.
If you don’t think a script can be executed on a ‘nix box popping up a query for your sudo or root password think again. Security on any box is an illusion.
If you stick to the repositories you’re good, but if you install plugins and extensions in Firefox or run Java, install .deb or .rpm packages you have exposure. Websites are defaced on Apache servers all the time primarily because people who don’t know what they are doing don’t change default passwords or other needed hardening gets skipped.
Most hacking is done for profit not for bragging rights. You can see OSX is starting to get more attention from hackers as the marketshare rises.
@Rimmer
On the other hand Linux supports most hardware now, if not completely. Wireless remains the biggest irritation, getting 802.11N working is a PITA. 3D graphics acceleration usually requires closed binaries.
If you could get Linux preinstalled much of this would be moot. I could hand you a Window’s OEM disk and you can easily have Windows tell you it can’t find drivers and a bunch of yellow triangles in the hardware. That’s splitting hairs and doesn’t really matter to end users, but Windows is just as dependent on hardware vendors.
Online banking is browser dependent. I had issues with Firefox on Windows with some secure sites a few years back but I run Linux as my personal OS and all of those types of issues are basically over.
I can and do run Office on my Linux rig because I get documents and spreadsheets that requires it. I could run it in a virtual machine but I don’t need it often enough.
Otherwise I use Open Office for general work and have little problem with exchanging info with others.
Evolution does 99% of what Outlook does including syncing with Exchange. I sync with my Windows Mobile HTC Touch Pro. The number of people using AutoCad is pretty small. If you need to run CAD or Final Cut Pro than Linux isn’t an option.
My wife, 75 year old Mother-in-law and 80 year old Father are all running Linux and wouldn’t have any idea of how to tinker. I set them up because I was tired of continually tinkering and cleaning crap off the machines since I couldn’t get them to stop installing web crapware
DRM files are so 20th Century and going away.
September 15th, 2009
Rimmer:
Most people have pirated OS install since is so damn easy to get and better. Linux is good for hackers i think. But for regular people Windows is the best at basically everything. Is the easier to use it has over billions on applications already.