Microsoft 'indoctrinates' Best Buy workers with anti-Linux 'lies'

Microsoft (MFST) is "indoctrinating" Best Buy (BBY) workers to sell its highly anticipated Windows 7 operating system using outright lies about the performance of open-source competitor Linux, according to Linux experts and at least one Best Buy employee who has seen the alleged Microsoft training slides.

"Linux does not support many common applications and online services like iTunes, Zune, Quicken, Photoshop, and Office 2007," asserts one slide in the now-leaked Microsoft ExpertZone training module designed for Best Buy employees preparing to sell Windows 7, which will be released in October. Another slide calls the statement "Linux is safer than Windows," a "myth."

But when I went into my local Best Buy on Houston Street in New York on a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I was informed that the chain does not carry Linux-equipped laptops or net-books. So why would Microsoft be teaching Best Buy employees to counsel customers to avoid Linux? Why indeed.