Does it surprise anyone that Microsoft is allegedly helping to train BestBuy employees to sell Windows 7 against Linux?

It shouldn't.

A post on the overclock.net forum this week made by a self-described BestBuy employee includes a PowerPoint deck to help the retailer differentiate against Linux.

This is a marvelous thing for Linux fans everywhere.

It means that Microsoft takes the threat from Linux ON THE DESKTOP (BestBuy isn't really in the server biz is it?) very seriously. Microsoft has gone through the time and expense to educate its retail partners about the differences between operating systems which means that the question must be coming up.

Consumers must be asking about Linux. Why else would Microsoft bother to spend the resources to differentiate their products? If Microsoft was truly the only choice available for consumer desktops there would be no need to say why they are better than Linux.

That said can you actually buy Linux at BestBuy?

A year ago you could buy Ubuntu Linux at BestBuy, though I'm not sure that is still the case today (if anyone has actually seen it on the shelf lately please do comment below).

Bottom line though is that Windows is pre-loaded on 99 percent of the consumer PC hardware that BestBuy sells. Pre-loaded Linux at BestBuy is something that I don't think yet exists.

For system builders, that's another story. Linux is a real and viable choice and a choice that can be had for no money down (though you can always pay for support later). Try that with Windows.