Comments on: Microsoft unleashes retail talking points attacking Linux, Macs

By: The Mad Hatter

The Mad Hatter — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:49:23 +0000

This is a bit off topic - but apparently Best Buy's Geek Squad votes union. I wonder if one of the points that the Union will negotiate for will be the right to tell customers the truth?

By: The Mad Hatter

The Mad Hatter — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:40:35 +0000

Great story again, thank you. Deeply embedded in M$ culture is that premise that the command line is true computing, and that the GUI is a gimmick.

Don’t you mean that “Deeply embedded in M$ culture is the premise that our end users are total idiots?”

By: benlewis

benlewis — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 05:33:52 +0000

Great story again, thank you. Deeply embedded in M$ culture is that premise that the command line is true computing, and that the GUI is a gimmick. Remember those arguments from way back when? For example: The “taskbar”. Why would you use that word? From a marketing perspective, nothing about an experience you’re selling should be a “task”. But Windows is littered with this thinking. Apple = Activity Monitor, M$ = Task Manager.

By: Microsoft’s Anti-GNU/Linux Training Comes to Office Depot, Not Just Best Buy and Staples | Boycott Novell

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 10:35:48 +0000

[...] immediately drew Mac proponents into this debate. Roughly Drafted Magazine wrote about this too and the Microsoft crowd at Neowin sees nothing wrong with Microsoft’s behaviour, unlike Dave [...]

By: VarunPramanik

VarunPramanik — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 07:16:04 +0000

About two weeks ago BestBuys had set up a table during a services fair at my university. One of the men behind the table looked up to me as I was walking by and said, “We have Macs!”

By: The Mad Hatter

The Mad Hatter — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 04:19:05 +0000

Neat. I’d seen the Linux version, and got a good laugh out of it. Now I’ll download the Mac version, maybe I’ll be able to do something fun with them.

By: daGUY

daGUY — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 21:16:31 +0000

The thing that jumps out at me as the most dishonest is the Windows Live vs. MobileMe slide. Every feature of Windows Live that they list has an equivalent app on the Mac that – guess what – comes bundled for free:

- Messenger = iChat
- Photo Gallery = iPhoto
- Family Safety = Parental Controls
- Mail = Mail
- Writer = iWeb
- Movie Maker = iMovie

MobileMe isn’t at all the same thing. It would be like if Apple said “all Macs come with iLife – Windows users have to buy Norton AntiVirus.” It’s a complete “apples and oranges” comparison.

Not to mention you get GarageBand and iDVD with the Mac as well, which don’t have Windows Live equivalents.

By: tonortall

tonortall — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 12:12:20 +0000

Typical marketing, really. It’s simply the world we live in. I’m neither here nor there on it.

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:05:22 +0000

The argument that Gaming is better on Windows is hogwash. If you are a dedicated Gamer who wants to run the latest games all the time then you will be constantly upgrading your PC. And those people quickly find Retail to be too expensive to do this. (Plus it will probably void the box-shifters warrenty)

By: Brau

Brau — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 06:32:29 +0000

Not surprised at at. Any good sales person knows most customers basically know diddly-squat about computers or networking and even less about Macs. They (men in particular) are also way to proud to admit it or ask hard questions that would display their lack of knowledge. All you need are a few excuses (or lies) to say it’s better and the man will hum and haw for a moment in an effort to look studious, then turn to the wife and say “What do you think, honey? Sounds good to me.”

Sold!