After our coverage from yesterday regarding Microsoft training material for Best Buy employees that not only makes Linux look bad, but is also full of inaccuracies, one of our faithful readers wrote in and said he could show us that Redmond was doing the same thing for Apple. "My account says I work at Best Buy, but the site is available for any retail employee whose company sells Microsoft products," he told us. The format is the same: Redmond isn't just saying that Windows has more software or games available than Mac does, but the software giant is actually going as far as teaching employees that there are certain statements about Macs that need to be labeled as myths.
There was an amusing and ironic twist, though. He was using a Mac, and the Microsoft-created website he was accessing wasn't playing so nice with Firefox. Nevertheless, despite a lot of random whitespace, the message is quite clear: a Windows 7 PC beats a Mac just as badly as a Windows 7 netbook beats a Linux netbook. Again, we have 11 screenshots to show you, and again you have to wonder how Microsoft can get away with these types of "training materials."
Just like last time, the introduction doesn't look fishy. Microsoft is simply going to explain the pros of using a Windows 7 PC over a Mac.
This one is an obvious stab at the Mac, Laptop Hunters style. The $300 is an interesting number though. We''d love to see how Microsoft came up with the figure.
Just like with the Linux slides, Microsoft is touting Windows Live Essentials. Yes, MobileMe costs $69 for the first year, but iChat is free and iLife '09 (including iPhoto and iMovie HD) is included with every Mac.
No doubt about it: there are more configuration options for Windows hardware. The "thousands of software options" carries a lot less weight these days.
Snow Leopard may not offer as many themes as Windows 7 does, but it can still be customized just fine. Believe it or not, you can change the screensaver!
We're not arguing this one: there are definitely more applications available for Windows than for Mac OS X.
True, although the hardware is equivalent—and you can boot Windows 7 on a Mac if you want a Mac OS X plus the gaming experience, some Mac users will argue. Others will counter that this defeats the purpose of running a Mac, but nevertheless the option is still there.
This slide is also perfectly fine, though it's worth noting that it's the first time Microsoft is comparing the Windows 7 taskbar to the OS X dock.
Sure, unless they are already Mac users.
This one gets a passing mark, although you can run all 25 games on a Mac too—with Windows. "Many Mac software titles are not... as available as the Windows versions?" That's an odd one.
This Microsoft training material for Best Buy retail staff is deliberately attacking Apple. Just like last time, there are correct assertions in the slides, but the majority of the statements are inaccurate or are only accurate in the specific way they are worded (though compared to the Linux slides, Apple got off easy). At publishing time, Microsoft did not yet respond to an inquiry about commenting on either the Linux story or this one.
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