Microsoft teaches Best Buy employees about Linux… with lies

Microsoft really has little to worry about when it comes to Linux. The market share of operating systems based on the Linux kernel is tiny, so small in fact that Microsoft wouldn’t even notice Linux if it were an insect flying around the room. Why then has Microsoft given Linux enough respect to teach Best Buy employees about Windows 7 by using comparison charts with Linux. And lying about the differences as well.

I sometimes don’t understand Microsoft. I can understand the new direction it has taken in advertising which talks up its own products while making sly digs at Apple. Because Apple is is a true competitor, with fans aplenty (although I personally can’t understand why), and is a company that also does the same or worse to Microsoft, with some of its ads focusing almost entirely on Windows. But Linux? That’s a different matter.

According to a poster on the Overclock forums calling himself GodofGrunts, who claims to be a Best Buy employee, Microsoft has recently issued a training program for educating employees of the chain about Windows 7. Part of the program looks at comparisons between Windows and Linux, all of which inevitably come out in favor of Windows.

Microsoft claims Linux offers poor support for cameras, iPods and Mp3 players, and no support for Windows Live and Microsoft games. Which just isn’t true, apart from the Windows Live part. But I doubt many Linux users would really be bothered about that. There are options for everything else on that list.

Microsoft then claims there is no support for Linux, which there is, from Canonical and Dell to name but two. And no option to use video chat on Linux. Has Microsoft never heard of Skype?

There is then a series of ‘Get The Facts Straight’ slides, which can be seen in full on Electronista. These include the “facts” that Linux is difficult to upgrade and update, is less secure than Windows, is difficult to learn and use, and won’t meet customer expectations. Which could at worst be considered lies, and at best merely opinion and spin on the part of Microsoft.

There’s nothing unexpected or that wrong with Microsoft twisting the facts in this way but I cannot understand the need to do so in the first place. Microsoft can safely ignore the desktop version of Linux because the chances of it ever becoming a mainstream OS are nil.

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