Yesterday Register Hardware reported that a company called BT was offering a bundle that combined an Eee PC running Linux with a copy of Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition. (This appears to have now been corrected.) While this is quite amusing (especially since you only save £1.76), there is another side to mistakes like this: they damage Linux’s reputation unfairly.

Without the bundle, most non-techie users would probably not even wonder if they needed Office. By seeing that bundle, though, potential Eee PC buyers are misled into assuming that they need Office and that it will run on the Eee PC. If those users were tech-savvy, when they realized that Office would not install, they would blame it on BT — but, of course, if those users really were tech-savvy, they would not have bought the bundle in the first place. The point is that the kind of user who might fall for this bundle is likely to blame Asus or Linux for the mistake, not BT, who is truly at fault.

I am glad BT has fixed the problem and I hope it does not happen again. I am tired of Linux FUD being spread due to mistakes like this.