Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft's Latest Anti-GNU/Linux Moves Are Sign of Agony

"I'd put the Linux phenomenon really as threat No. 1."

--Steve Ballmer, 2001



Summary: Microsoft goes ever more aggressive against the growth of GNU/Linux on the client side

LESS than a year ago we showed how Microsoft actively fought GNU/Linux at Wal-Mart, later remarking that similar tactics may have been used against OEMs that carry GNU/Linux on sub-notebooks. Now we find these leaked pages which show very vividly how Microsoft is training Best Buy staff to vilify GNU/Linux. Here is the opening statement.



So I work 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. Now, during my training modules, a "Linux vs Windows 7" module appeared.


Here is just one of the screenshots (down-scaled).

Anti-Linux shot



One of our readers laughs at what he calls "Vista 7 training", adding that "Vista 7 provides none of the four promised things, choice, compatibility, familiarity or peace of mind. It's a DRM upsell with a minor facelift that blows your old software away and confuses the crap out of the user for zero security gain." Exposing and calling it what it really is, this reader summarises the situation as follows: "Windows 7 propaganda is laughed at in public by Best Buy employees." Here is a Slashdot submission which calls it "Anti-Linux Training at Best Buy":

Best Buy is one of the few national computer retailers that has survived Vista and the recession. Here's how Microsoft is training their employees. It's like a throwback from the badly discredited "Get the Facts" campaign.


"Microsoft themselves try to teach Best Buy employees to lie about Windows 7, and are called on it in public," he adds.

Another person, Oiaohm, writes in our IRC channel: "Notice something funny about that training. Microsoft is mentioning Linux. You only do that if you fear your competitor, otherwise you just talk about your own product and hope the staff don't know about the other."

“Microsoft is mentioning Linux. You only do that if you fear your competitor, otherwise you just talk about your own product and hope the staff don't know about the other.”
      --Oiaohm
"I hope this guy has covered his identity," says the former person, as "Best Buy and Microsoft will fire him for sharing [...] employees are fired for such things. There are plenty of people in line for the job. [...] Vista pushed many retailers into bankruptcy. Windows 7 will challenge what's left. Best Buy is going the full Microsoft route and will pay a terrible price. They think they have it easy because no one else is left selling computers brick and mortar."

The latter reader adds: "The best part of it [is] Microsoft screwed up. Always a percentage of people giv[en] a briefing will question it."

"The question is," he concludes, "will Microsoft have to cut their price before release? Microsoft has dumped out more free copies of Windows 7 than any other version of Windows. And it's not even released yet."

Well, guess what Microsoft is doing right about now? It is offering small bribes (in the form of Vista 7 licences) to people who help Microsoft hype up the release. There is already a parody about it and another rather sarcastic take.

So lets now look at the party idea. http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/02/get-windows-7-[...] and see the title “Get Windows 7 Ultimate for free…..by throwing a party”. They say:

Sure, you’ll have to suck up your pride and invite your friends to a party with a theme like “setting up with ease” or “family friendly fun,”

[...]

Windows 7 party time? In my opinion the only thing to celebrate will be the end of the hangover from the Vista one. Will history be repeated with 7? Dip into your wallet and find out!


Incentives for people to hype up Vista 7? We have seen that before.

Going back to the Best Buy folly, Microsoft is clearly building an army of Microsoft salesmen even in other companies, not just Microsoft Stores. It's a very medieval approach where suppression of minds and conformity are a live-or-die crossroad. In addition to obedient salespeople, Microsoft is now recruiting marketing people to throw house parties for a piece of software. How pathetic is that? Does anyone remember the "Show Us Your Wow" campaign that Bill Gates was hyping up? They called for contributions from volunteers who would hype up Vista, only to take down the "Show Us Your Wow" Web site a short time later (the contributions all vanished along with it).

Microsoft is bordering the edges of the realm of grassroots (ethical) and verges AstroTurfing yet again. Let's remember yesterday's Vista 7 article/advert from The Register.

In more uplifting news about GNU/Linux, despite attempted derailing by Microsoft, GNU/Linux makes big strides in Russian education:

60 Thousand Russian Teachers Will Learn Linux by the End of 2009



[...]

As part of the initiative, Russian schools have already received CDs with Linux and other open-source tools distribution kits so that such solutions could be installed even in the schools with no broadband internet access. But of course such a large-scale deployment is not that easy to carry out without help of qualified professionals who can make it possible.


Russia also investigates Microsoft for misconduct while this new report from Business Week says that "even the software giant [Microsoft] has tried to tamp down expectations for the new operating system."

“Businesses will all but ignore Windows 7 and most uptake will come from consumers.”
      --Anonymous
"In other words," explains one person in USENET, "Windows 7 will be another dud and its release will NOT result in another PC upgrade cycle. Businesses will all but ignore Windows 7 and most uptake will come from consumers. This would be disastrous for Microsoft's credibility in the marketplace."

Going a little sarcastic, he adds: "I wonder what Microsoft will come up with after the failure of Windows 7, a Windows XP Second Edition? I'm pretty sure another incremental Vista update won't cut it with Wall Street so they'll have to try something radical. How about porting the Windows UI to Linux or (more likely) FreeBSD? Might work, but far from certain."

In exchange for these blows of reality, the Microsoft crowd strikes back by attacking GNU/Linux. Watch this one for example. It is the second such attack (almost identical) from the same author this week. We wrote about the first one right here. The author is collaborating with Microsoft (by his own admission) and he has a pattern of attacking Free software and GNU/Linux. Attacks on GNU/Linux are typically based on false market share statistics, whose connection to Microsoft we wrote about in:

  1. Net Applications Has Former Microsoft Employee, Also a Microsoft Investor?
  2. Three New Articles Question Net Applications' Integrity
  3. Net Applications: the Big Lie, Boosted by IDC|IDG et al
  4. Summary: Lies, Damn Lies and Net Applications (Fake 'Statistics')


According to statistics from one other source, GNU/Linux carries on gaining market share whereas OS X remains quite stagnant. Microsoft's very own statistics (see Ballmer's presentation slide below) show that GNU/Linux exceeds Apple in terms of market share on the desktop. Microsoft also considers GNU/Linux -- not Apple -- the #1 rival. It has repeatedly admitted this (even openly because it must) for many years. Linux has partly won the embedded market and the servers, but these days, desktop opportunities are within sight too.

Ballmer's slide on Macs and GNU/Linux
Steve Ballmer's presentation slide
from 2009 shows GNU/Linux as bigger than Apple on the desktop

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

The "Luddite" Complex
Sometimes simplest is best and sometimes "modern" is designed not with the buyers' interest in mind
SCO's Darl McBride Dead at Age 64
There's hardly any information about it, except we know he reached bankruptcy and 3 years later he died at a relatively young age
[Meme] Python Knows Its Bosses
Microsoft strings attached
[Meme] Debt of About $20 Per Active User
Facebook isn't laying off tens of thousands for "efficiency" but for survival
 
Links 02/11/2024: Many Fakes in Social Control Media
Links for the day
GNU/Linux Usage Surveys: Up to 6.8% (With ChromeOS, Based on StatCounter) in Desktops/Laptops and Above 2% in Steam
Today StatCounter starts releasing graphs based on data for November
Gemini Links 02/11/2024: Petscop, Jokes, and RetroChallenge
Links for the day
Links 02/11/2024: Temu EU Probe and Shorts Trademark
Links for the day
The 'Turning-Free-Code-Proprietary Foundation' (Linux/Microsoft Foundation)
LF will basically become just as sinister as its corporate sponsors
Python Software Foundation is 'Cancel Culture' Rehomed
Python isn't grassroots and it doesn't really tolerate grassroots
DeVault "Closes Down His Mailing Lists Every Time There's a Scandal" and Also Censors Messages
Censorious code hosting platform
What Social Control Media Really Is
Social Control Media, in a nutshell, isn't just bad if its controller is some foreign or hostile nation
Taking Ethics Lectures From Drew
Projection tactics
Links 02/11/2024: Facebook Stock Falls (Soaring Debt), Apple’s Quarterly Profit Down
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/11/2024: Burnout, Emacs Bookmarks, and Smooth Migration
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, November 01, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, November 01, 2024
Facebook's Debt Has Soared to All-Time High of Nearly 50 Billion Dollars
But the corporate media pretends all is well (while mass layoffs continue and slop takes over the social control media)
Geminispace Makes It Past 4,200 Capsules on November 1st
At last!
Links 01/11/2024: Election Interferences by X/Twitter/Musk, Strava as Espionage Tool
Links for the day
The October 2024 Web Server Survey Shows a Further Collapse for Microsoft in the Servers Market
Microsoft experienced the next largest loss of 699,464 sites (-3.45%)
Gemini Links 01/11/2024: TLS Sucks, twytere.com Announced
Links for the day
Links 01/11/2024: Few Things Are Cheaper Than This Antenna and "Nothing Lasts Forever"
Links for the day
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part V
By Dr. Andy Farnell
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 31, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, October 31, 2024
R.T.O. is Another Name (or Acronym) for Voluntary Layoffs
Amazon is trying to get many workers to leave on their own
Microsoft's Acquisition of Activision (to Fake Revenue Growth by Buying Revenue) Was a Failure
Of course the mass layoffs at Microsoft aren't just a Microsoft thing
Stagnant, Shrinking Businesses and "IBM's Corporate Culture Since the Late 1980s... Over 35 Years."
Recently, IBM was using share price as a talking point, insisting the company was doing OK while tens of thousands were being laid off
Links 01/11/2024: World News, Political Catchup
Links for the day
[Meme] Probably the Worst Possible Time to Get Information From Social Control Media
Musk does not want to prevent disinformation from spreading and the same is true for Facebook and TikTok; they have their own interests
Update on Litigation Against the European Patent Office (EPO) at the ILO Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT)
Rewards and compensation for staff have long fallen, resulting in many experienced colleagues leaving and causing further declines in quality and compliance
Gemini Links 31/10/2024: NNCP, Declutter the Web, Cost of Community
Links for the day
Links 31/10/2024: Supermicro Plummets 33%, Block and Dropbox Mass Layoffs
Links for the day
Links 31/10/2024: Environmental Anxiety, Profound Changes in Hardware Market
Links for the day
Links 30/10/2024: TSMC Concerns and North Koreans in Ukraine War
Links for the day
Facebook is for Zombies
Social control media is for fools
Microsoft Now Has $235,290,000,000 in Liabilities, They Grow Over Time in Spite of Mass Layoffs (So Expect More Layoffs)
expect more mass layoffs
Links 31/10/2024: DST Woes, War Updates, Amazon RTO Backlash
Links for the day
Gemini Links 31/10/2024: Attention Economy and Gemlogs
Links for the day
Happy Halloween
October is nearly over
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 30, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 30, 2024
For the Record: Linux is Controlled by the United States of America
"This is going to make many question the openness and inclusivity of the work done by Linux Foundation"
Microsoft: XBox Hardware Revenues Down About 30% (Ignore the Buzzwords and Activision Activity Dressed Up as "XBox")
For context, in a previous quarter XBox hardware sales were down by about 50%
Cooking the Books With "Cloud" And "AI" Was Not Enough to Fool Microsoft Investors
"Microsoft Shares Drop on Disappointing Azure Growth Forecast"