Microsoft Not Playing Fair : Windows 7 Better than Linux ?
Microsoft up to its tricks.
Many companies across many industries partake in some form of evangelism (though some would call it propaganda) for its products. Some of the best evangelism starts at the retail level, where employees can 'inform' the buying consumer while trying to sell a life-saving in-store warranty policy.
A Best Buy employee, who happens to also be an overclock.net forum poster, recently partook in a Microsoft ExpertZone training exercise (with the incentive to be able to buy Windows 7 for $10) encountered materials from Microsoft that push certain superiorities that Windows 7 possess over Linux. While some points were valid, others were untrue.
One of the slides that Microsoft used (above) is fairly misleading, as World of Warcraft is supported in Linux through WINE. Windows Live Essentials are indeed a Windows-only product, but there are many other free alternatives. Video chat is also supported well on Linux through Skype and Pidgin. See here a mirror of the original thread.
It seems that Microsoft is trying to fight off Linux machines that are sold through Best Buy, which if any, are netbooks only. We can't imagine that there will be many customers who will wander into Best Buy without a clue of which operating system he or she should go with – the new and shiny Windows 7 or the mysterious, counter-culture Linux.
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