Microsoft bribes Best Buy to disparage Linux

It’s a measure of how much I’ve neglected this blog the last few months that I found this item a couple of days ago and posted it to Clipmarks and Facebook without mentioning it here.

According to British computer magazine The Inquirer, Microsoft is offering training to Best Buy employees. This wouldn’t be sinister in and of itself, but apparently the training includes FUD claims about Linux. Here’s an excerpt from the article, complete with charming British slang:

MICROSOFT IS INVOLVED in a programme to train the spotty Herberts working at leading US consumer electronics chain Best Buy to disparage Linux and Macs in favour of Windows.

According to MacInsider, Microsoft has created ExpertZone “training courses” to prevent retail employees from selling customers Macs or PCs running Linux.

It provides them with “facts”, consisting of a series of claims about how Windows 7 compares to Linux or Apple, followed by a “quiz” that tells retail employees that their answers are “incorrect” if they don’t parrot back the Vole’s talking points.

Apparently Microsoft bribes BestBuy staff and other chain stores’ retail employees with a ticket to buy a copy of Windows 7 for just $10 for completing the training.

The New Linux.com

According to Linux Journal, the Linux Foundation has launched a new website called Linux.com. Apparently, the site is to serve as a central clearing house for Linux information. It includes news and blogs related to both the Linux kernel and individual Linux distros. It looks like the RSS feeds were empty when I tried to view them, but I subscribed to the home page’s feed anyway.

I look forward to seeing what happens with this site. It would be nice to have easy access to so much Linux content straight from the horse’s mouth.

Dell Ubuntu Mix-Up

From Jayson Rowe’s post, I got this news story about a woman who mistakenly ordered a computer with Ubuntu pre-installed from Dell. Apparently, though the blame for the situation lies mostly with Dell customer service, some Linux users took the piece as an attack on Linux. This resulted in some heated e-mails to the station. While Jayson Rowe (and some others) have used this story to go off on a tangent about what awful people Linux users are, I would like to do something more productive. This story demonstrates the most important thing a prospective Linux user should do before switching: know your needs.

You should never swtich to Linux without knowing whether or not your current equipment is compatible. Obviously, I like Ubuntu, but not every hardware vendor supports Linux, and this can be a big problem. This is why you should always run Ubuntu (or any other flavor of Linux) from the live CD before actually installing it on your computer. If your printer, modem, etc., lack Linux-compatible drivers, this is the time to find out.

Even if your Linux version passes this first test, you shouldn’t completely eliminate Windows from your computer until you’re sure you don’t need any Windows programs. Most of the time, OpenOffice’s ability to convert to Word file formats will work fine for the average computer user. However, you can lose some document formatting information in the transition. For most people, this isn’t a problem, but some tasks require precise page design. For example, in my technical writing classes, my work is judged partially on whether page design makes the document’s information more readable or understandable. Thus, I can’t afford formatting mistakes. That’s why I still dual-boot Ubuntu and Windows.

I’ll conclude with one final, indispensible tip: use all the resources you have on hand before calling the local TV ombudsman. Most of the problems the woman in the news story had could have been solved by taking two steps: calling Verizon’s tech support and checking out OpenOffice’s help files. Now, to be fair, this woman was thrown into the Linux community involuntarily, so her confusion is understandable. However, for anyone deliberately considering the switch, the Ubuntu website has a lot of basic information, such as OpenOffice/MS Office compatibility. Despite one woman’s unfortunate experience, Ubuntu can be a joy to use with just a little bit of forethought.

Microsoft Tea Leaves

According to MSNBC and the AP, Steve Ballmer gave the keynote at the annual Consumer Electronics show yesterday. Basically, it was a bunch of hype about the soon-to-be-released Windows 7 Beta and other near-term product releases. I found a couple of quotes really interesting. First, there’s this:

“I believe Windows will remain at the center of people’s technological solar system,” Ballmer said. “We’re putting in all the right ingredients: simplicity, reliability and speed….”

In other words, Windows is finally catching up with Ubuntu. (I haven’t used enough Linux distros to speak for Linux generally).

This little bit is more distressing, though:

Ballmer is hoping to boost the number of people using Microsoft’s Live Search engine, which ranks well behind Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc. in popularity, through a deal with PC maker Dell Inc. Dell will put a special Live Search browser toolbar and Windows Live programs, including Microsoft’s e-mail and instant-messaging applications, on most of the consumer and small-business PCs that it sells worldwide. That deal replaces a relationship between Dell and Google.

If Dell is striking new deals with Microsoft, will it feel pressure to back off of its support for Linux in genral, and Ubuntu in particular. Specifically, how long will those Dells with Ubuntu preinstalled be available?