With the recent BS by Microsoft with its Best Buy plan I think its time we fought back.
I feel we as linux users have been too passive, its time to act.
I say we protest outside the Best Buys, spread the truth about Microsofts lies and then work our way up to protesting outside of Redmond too.
I think its time we took action instead of just talking about it, we as the linux community should stand up for ourselves and linux.
I no longer want to sit around doing nothing, its time to make a stand people.
This is war people, its time we treated it like one.
But not with physical violence, public protests and us uniting as one will help head off Microsofts lies at the pass.
It is called “people power” an example is the so called Edsa revolution in the Philippines.
I take there Ghandi approach myself, or MLK
If it is any condolence I got one of my Customers to migrate from MS to SLES 
In my area of work MS is a joke anyways (Server side). Although you always have those few applications that only run on wintendo server. Especially their licensing you have to pay more if you want to be able to address more than 4 GB mem in a box - just LOL . </rant off>
But yeah the Best Buy thing is just plain disgusting , was even on /. a few days ago. Only thing I can say is fight back.
But what do you expect from their n00b squad. I am not saying all there at Best Buy are n00bs but mostly from my former experiences. Luckily here in Europe we don’t have Best Buy. Btw I don’t think Win7 is as cracked up as they make it , I mean cmon’ technically it is Vista how it was supposed to be , just another snowball action from MS bending more customers over.
…yeah, but the pictures are prettier and they moved the icons around again, that’s all that counts ;).
Then there is this from the Novell Chat forum…
Windows Vista/7 : SMB2.0 NEGOTIATE PROTOCOL REQUEST Remote B.S.O.D.
I just tried it with my vmware Windows 7 RC and boom 
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2009/Sep/0039.html
Oh and the correct script is on the blog page.
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Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.29-0.1-default
up 3 days 18:58, 2 users, load average: 0.14, 0.08, 0.09
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 190.18
Btw I don’t think Win7 is as cracked up as they make it , I mean cmon’ technically it is Vista how it was supposed to be , just another snowball action from MS bending more customers over.
MS is yet again ripping off customers. Instead of waiting longer and during this time improving and fixing Vista’s performance and other issues, they released it to the public as “ready” so they can cash on it as soon as possible. Now with Win 7 (aka Vista V2 or “what Vista should have been in the frist place”) they fix everything that was wrong with Vista and repackage it as a new OS and sell it so they can cash on it once more. That’s double cash in ya pockets and since those who got Vista will be forced to upgrade to Win 7 to get better performance and security (well most of them will upgrade) it’s only a win-win situation for MS
In other words, the Vista / Win 7 thingy is one and the same thing, just different aspects of it
We need an open source manifesto!
I’ll start:
“Notwithstanding…”
Ok!
Comparisons aside …
Linux is a kernel with all the support routines for a robust system.
Hardware issues do restrict some with compatibility or configuratory issues.
Linux communities exist to offer users support based on the distribution they chose to use.
Distributions are like your preference in cars … some like one model over another, some have success with one and nothing but trouble with another.
Each distribution has certain default look and feel and featured software.
There are many desktops available KDE CDE Gnome FVWM iceworm etc, so as users you have a choice and that includes using many desktops.
For most users there is far more applications available than they can feasibly use BUT … use is a matter of choice.
Linux can be used on older equipment for the tight budgeted
Linux can be used on very compact environments like:
GPS scanners
GPS receivers
Cell phones
Personal organizers
Security controllers
Wireless webcams common in security
Intelligent USB and Firewire devices
and the list will probably increase exponentially…
Linux is used often in enterprise situations where security, dependability, and functionality are really important.
Look at the ISP’s running an unicee
Look at just how many Web servers are run under Linux or other unicee’s
Linux can read and write Microsoft partitions.
Linux can run quite a few (more than 6900) windows applications under wine and the list grows daily
Linux can run Windows in a virtual box
Most everything that can be done using Windows can be done
using Linux far more efficiently
You can multi-boot with several Windows versions and many Linux versions
Linux is true multi-tasking, true multi-user platform
When using multiple versions of Linux you can keep most of your favorite software and settings as you upgrade or add more versions
Linux is always becoming better and as new features become available they come out as both test versions and stable versions such that those needing to just use a feature wait for a stable version and those wishing to help the community can use the experimental versions
With Linux everyone in the community can contribute to the level of their skills
With the exception of Enterprise Linux versions Linux is free to download, free to use, free to obtain help through forums, free to add new GPL software
Linux is about choices but Linux needs people to help
** Linux is an alternative
( Microsoft holds a major share of the marketplace and comes pre-installed on most new systems and all versions come at a cost. MacIntosh holds second place as another paid for system. Both of these systems have issues just like Linux has. There is never going to be a finished non-evolving system despite what hype there may be)
In conclusion, I hope this long winded response gives rise to thoughts of promoting Linux without bashing users of any other system. How can we offer Linux as a good alternative if we slam people who only have experience with other systems. Let them come to think of Linux as a fresh start that they thought of.
:\
You forgot one very important thing -
With Linux you can change your hard drive/mainboard/video card/any part, without having to spend hours messing with drivers and software settings or having to phone Microsoft and beg for their mercy and allow you to use the software you just paid hundreds of dollars for!
Hell you can even take the hard drive out of your desktop/laptop/server, stick it in a completely different machine, and with minimal* fuss you will be up and running in a matter of minutes!
*by minimal I mean changing UUID to /dev/ style settings, and not accounting for proprietary drivers.
If Microsoft stopped telling lies, they might attract less attention from the EU and other regulatory bodies. We don’t want that, do we? 
If Linux becomes as popular in the general public as MacIntosh maybe we’d see comical commercials on TV like Mac does about Windows products ( I hope not) since real business has used unicee’s long before Windows or Linux or MacIntosh came into being. Before someone argues that Apple became MacIntosh, I know that ok!rotfl!