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Microsoft miseducates Best Buy on Linux

Screenshots from Best Buy training shows Microsoft spreading Linux FUD...again.

Dave Rosenberg Co-founder, MuleSource
Dave Rosenberg has more than 15 years of technology and marketing experience that spans from Bell Labs to startup IPOs to open-source and cloud software companies. He is CEO and founder of Nodeable, co-founder of MuleSoft, and managing director for Hardy Way. He is an adviser to DataStax, IT Database, and Puppet Labs.
Dave Rosenberg

Just when it seemed like Microsoft was content to bag on Google and Apple, screenshots of anti-Linux training materials hit the Internet a few days ago. If these are fakes, someone certainly spent a lot of time making them look and sound a lot like previous Microsoft training materials.

According to the anonymous source, Microsoft has been sending Best Buy retail staff training material that deliberately attacks and distorts Linux. And from the screenshots below (originally posted on Overclock.net forum) it's clear Microsoft is threatened by Linux--if for the wrong reasons.

Anti-Linux rhetoric
Anti-Linux rhetoric Screenshot-Dave Rosenberg

Presumably this campaign is related to Netbooks and laptops, a space in which Linux has feature parity, if a lack of interest from consumers. It would be interesting to see how Microsoft will evolve its anti-Apple message. The laptop hunters ad series focused on the expense of Apple products, but it certainly can't beat iTunes and other Apple software for compatibility and ease of use.

Anti-Linux rhetoric
Anti-Linux rhetoric Screenshot-Dave Rosenberg

Microsoft didn't immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment on the screenshots. Similarly, Electronista wrote that Microsoft has neither confirmed or denied the legitimacy of the materials.

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.