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Microsoft attack Linux at the retail level. (Probably not 56k friendly)

205K views 175 replies 111 participants last post by  purpleannex 
#1 ·
EDIT:We're in the news!
EDIT2: More news added.
EDIT3: Another news source added.
EDIT4: We are now on Tom's Hardware. I think we made every major Tech news source except Wired.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/win...inux,8616.html
http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/08/m...yees-how-to-t/
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/09/07/best.buy.told.to.misrepresent.linux/
http://www.overclock.net/software-news/571869-engadget-microsofts-training-materials-teach-best.html
http://technabob.com/blog/2009/09/08/microsoft-miseducates-best-buy-employees-about-linux/
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/09/06/microsoft-indoctrinates-best-buy-workers-with-anti-linux-lies/
http://digg.com/search?s=Microsoft+linux
http://linux.slashdot.org/story/09/0...Talking-Points
http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/0...-targets-linux
http://blogs.computerworld.com/14687...urce=rss_blogs
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/new...inux-users.ars

MIRROR HERE: http://quaoar.ww7.be/ms_fud_of_the_y...-probably.html

So I work worked at Best Buy (insert boos and hisses) and I was doing some Microsoft ExpertZone training.

Well, the new one for Windows 7 allows me to get a $10 retail copy of Windows 7 after completing the courses. So I figured I'd get it and sell it for a quick buck. Its a "NFS" version... Now, during my training modules, a "Linux vs Windows 7" module appeared.

Here are screenshots of the lies Microsoft is portraying.

Okay so this one isn't so bad.



Again, this one isn't so bad either.


Okay so here's where it starts getting bad.

No iPod support? Really? And the Zune doesn't work on the Mac either although there has been some progress from the Linux community. And I've never had any problems pulling pictures from cameras.

I've yet to see a printer that doesn't have a driver. You might have to download it from the products website though (gasp!).

Yeah yeah. Software. Although WINE has been vastly improving lately (we even got around that stupid Secu-ROM).

There are free alternatives to all of the Windows Live "essentials".

WOW. Of all the games to mention, they mention World of Warcraft. I wrote a tutorial on how to get WoW running on Linux not to long ago. Its probably the easiest game to set up with in WINE.

Authorized support? Well you have Red Hat and Canonical, oh I guess you can count Novell...

Video chat with Pidgin? Or Skype?

I don't have time to refute the rest, but I'll post the screenies.














 
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#3 ·
LOL I am not a big Linux guy but I've never though of Linux being bad. I always though of it as an alternative that took a little more work than Win.
 
#5 ·
I don't think I could take that training course seriously, either way thanks for the good laugh
 
#8 ·
I love Vista, looking forward to 7 and certainly see why MS would do this...

BUT...

This is astoundingly bad... astoundingly bad!!!! And untrue (as you point out). AND.. those questions... totally bogus. If anything I think the Linux updates are easier and generally go smoother than Windows.

Unbuntu is almost as good as Vista in my eyes. I'd say it is better if ATI drivers were easy to install (please don't start on this, I'll try one of the installers soon when I'm not lazy). It actually runs BOINC applications 30% faster than Vista for me..

And I'd say the average web-surfing customer they see, there would be no indistinguishable difference between using the 2 OS's. Minus the drastic cost difference. This is only exaggerated when you add in that Open Office is free too, so that saves the "average" consumer quite a bit too if they were looking to buy it for school and planning to use Office.
 
#9 ·
They forgot that one tab on the 3rd picture way down at the bottom that went something like this:

Affordability: Windows 7-USD90 Dollars or more Linux: Free on most distributions

I also like how they group all linux distos into just "Linux": That's doing a lot of justice right there. They also don't mention that some very complete linux distros fit on a 4gigabyte USB drive that you can take wherever you want and boot from it to have all your docs on the go.

Either way...I like the compatibility of windows, and the interface of linux....so I just dual boot....problem solved. It's not like my copy of antiX or Xubuntu cost me anything for this netbook.
 
#10 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Maddog7771 View Post
Um WOW. THeir full of them selves. And if something dose not work with linux you can compile your own code and make it work.
Who do you think they are really aiming this at?

That being said, most of the stuff in there is truthful, i mean saying that updating is not simple in linux is really true, as they are comparing it to windows.
 
#11 ·
Many of you fail to realize that most of the things you say are easy in Linux are still too difficult for the average computer user. Your points are therefore not much better than Microsoft's.

(Before one of you gets your panties in a bunch, let me remind you that I have not said I agree or disagree with Microsoft's words in the "guide.")
 
#12 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by unnkonnekted View Post
That being said, most of the stuff in there is truthful, i mean saying that updating is not simple in linux is really true, as they are comparing it to windows.
Not really, updating Linux is so much easier than Windows. One button to check for updates, another to start them. 9 times out of 10 you don't even need to restart the machine.
 
#13 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by minus.fireal View Post
Not really, updating Linux is so much easier than Windows. One button to check for updates, another to start them. 9 times out of 10 you don't even need to restart the machine.
For updates ALONE - I think it's entirely fair to say that Linux is just as easy if not easier (at least in Ubuntu).

I've had MS failures much more on updates than I've had so far in Linux (just this month my network card failed because of driver released in August in Vista, had to roll back - this was not something a targetted "average" customer could do). An average customer would just know their internet isn't working and would spend hours struggling to figure out why...when in fact it was that Windows update provided a driver that clearly didn't work well in my system.

Basically I agree with the guy I quoted... and still feel the arguments presented by MS don't hold water... that's all we're saying. If anything Linux has made a concerted effort to start to come to the masses.

And my experience so far in Ubuntu (minus ATI drivers)?? Is that they've made unbelievable progress to that end, and would definitely recommend it to anyone.
 
#14 ·
Ease of use is a personal opinion, not a quantitative measurement. Believe it or not I've seen people who picked up Linux in 30 mins, but couldn't use Windows to save their life. Of course, these were people coming off of IBM mainframes and green text consoles back in the glory days, so it's easy to see why.

Either way it proves a point!
 
#15 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by unnkonnekted View Post
Who do you think they are really aiming this at?

That being said, most of the stuff in there is truthful, i mean saying that updating is not simple in linux is really true, as they are comparing it to windows.
Linux is not easy to update pfft yeah right. If anything it is ridiculously easy and you don't even need to restart. And if their is not a driver advable for your computer like say an audio driver you can compile your own. And the forums are far more helpful than anything MS has to offer. The ONLY reason I run windows is because of gameing.
 
#16 ·
My Win 2003 server gets updates regularly that don't require reboots but about once a month it DL's an update that requires a reboot. So, right now, I have a reboot nag screen popping up for over a week but I don't reboot because it's a production server and some of the import/export programs get munged up when there's a reboot plus I have to immediately log in the Administrator via iLO on this headlss server or else the SFTP server and the backup utility don't run correctly. So, in the past 7 years, I've rebooted this server 32 times. (Ya, I'm a bad admin).
My Win 2008 dev server gets updates weekly and 100% of them have required reboots. That means that in the past 10 months I've been using Win2008, I have had to reboot that server ~40 times for frickin updates! This is why Win2008 is my dev server and not my production server.
My Ubuntu904 server, which is my company's NAS, syslog, DNS/DHCP, and monitoring server, gets updated weekly and has never needed a reboot since I implemented it 10 months ago.

In all earnest, I could care less how many updates require a reboot on my desktops or laptops. My windows machines have a 35 second boot, and my Ubuntu laptop has a 19 second boot, so rebooting for updates is not something I would ever whine about with those. But for my production servers, my company's money-makers, an update requiring a reboot is completely unacceptable and the sizable investment necessary to maintain high-availability with my windows servers is cost-prohibitive (according to management). So I have no solution but to migrate all my servers over to Ubuntu servers (because I'm just more familiar with Ubuntu) simply because of Windows update methods.
 
#17 ·
Lol, 645 guests reading right now. /. has gotten a hold of this.

I completely expected this from the marketing side, but going so far as forcing propaganda into salespeople...

Upgrades and updates in Fedora are brainless. The hardest part is typing in my root password for a select few updates. I've never had a problem with a printer, camera, or mp3 player either. My webcam worked quicker, and get this, my Microsoft keyboard has better functionality in Fedora.

It's sad that people actually trust that this is true.
 
#19 ·
Updating Windows is a pain. It always requires reboot. How is that better than not requiring to reboot? Kernel updates in Linux do require a reboot but those don't happen very often. And no nag screens about "Restart now"!

I think if MS starts to sell Win7 for free, I would still want to install Linux because its safer, easier to manage once setup and I am in complete control over the stuff!
 
#25 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Maddog7771 View Post
Um WOW. THeir full of them selves. And if something dose not work with linux you can compile your own code and make it work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dlee7283 View Post
Do you honestly do that?
Maybe it's me, but when I read a post that has as many spelling/grammar errors as his, it kind of takes away from the credibility. I'm a basic linux user who has no knowledge of compiling a driver, but I can certainly spell "does".
 
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