The "Microsoft Small Business Specialist" joke

[TheMonkey]

I've just been sifting through the material that Microsoft are pushing as their "Small business specialist" qualification. What a total load of rubbish. I'm offended at the nature of some of their stuff. They are basicalling forcing you to :

1. Push their own BOXED products over OEM ones. God that sucks for the clients.
2. Sell them Frontpage 2003 rather than something more equipped to deal with the web.
3. Push SBS 2003 over just buying outlook with office.
4. Pushing their own crap over something custom even if it's the wrong shape.

Microsoft have really lost the marketing plot recently. Some of the language they have is purely offensive in their marketing literature. It's more like orders than information. YOU WILL SELL THIS OR WE'LL REVOKE YOUR LIFE.

I was so offended, I've resigned my status as a Microsoft partner and have ritually destroyed my Action Pack with a lump hammer.

I'm going to start pushing OpenOffice out to clients from now on. It'll make the switch to Linux on the desktop easier later on!

[funkyd]

1. Push their own BOXED products over OEM ones. God that sucks for the clients.
2. Sell them Frontpage 2003 rather than something more equipped to deal with the web.
3. Push SBS 2003 over just buying outlook with office.
4. Pushing their own crap over something custom even if it's the wrong shape.

I was looking into this myself and I take your point. That said, if you just take it as something to use when trying to get a new client - well it adds interest.

Frontpage I agree - home use only!! The replacement looks better and there are the express products you can use. Fine for the basics but anything more just get a proper developer to do it.

OEM / Retail - depends on requirements and the client. If it is a corporate puchase I ususally go retail - if it is a charity or really small company I would go oem for the cost saving - they are less likely to need SA or to make any major upgrades.

Horses for courses I would say.

[Cowboy Bob]

Frontpage I agree - home use only!!

It's not even fit for home use, unless you don't mind that the resulting website will probably only appear as designed in Internet Explorer.

[cojak]

Frontpage for home use?? Why bother when you can get Nvu for nowt? Quanta+ is good too if you want to get under the bonnet and that's nowt too and who needs to pay for Adobe* when there's Scribus and...

...you get my point.

*Yes, I know - but I'm keeping this legal - I don't have ripped software on my PC's, it's an ethics thing...

[wc2]

I was so offended, I've resigned my status as a Microsoft partner and have ritually destroyed my Action Pack with a lump hammer.

Liar! (About dumping the disks)

[TheMonkey]

Liar! (About dumping the disks)

I have actually. Although someone nicked them within about a day of putting them in the bin.

I have an XP Pro licenses and use OpenOffice. I have a purchased copy of VS.Net 2005. Don't need anything else!

Subscription was up for renewal next month anyway.