This week, we will talk with a provider who specializes in Linux and Linux based solutions and find out how we can provide open source solutions to our customers as well. Part 1 of a 3 part series.

TechPodcasts Promo Tag :10
Intro 1:17
Billboard 4:26

News and Comment segment 4:57
Intel Corp. announced that it plans to release a six core processor before the end of 2008. The Force Field is conducting a Trivia Contest during the month of March.

If you are a regular listener of The Force Field podcast, you now have the chance to take your knowledge of the show and win prizes! All you have to do is listen to the podcast, log into The Force Field web site at theforcefield.net, click on The Force Field Podcast Trivia Contest link on the right sidebar and answer the ten trivia questions. If you answer all ten questions correctly you will be entered into a drawing to win a 1GB USB flash drive or an Nvidia partnerForce T-shirt! Enter The Force Field podcast Trivia Contest today and win! Contest ends March 31, 2008.

The idea for the Force Field Trivia Contest came from Genoagirl, one of the Administrators of TheForceField.Net. We needed to meet with the other administrators to plan the details of the contest, and a physical meeting was out of the question. So we used GoToMeeting. Try GotoMeeting free for 30 days! For this special offer, visit www.gotomeeting.com/techpodcasts.

Microsoft notified users of its popular Excel spreadsheet program that a patch released Tuesday causes the application to return erroneous results in calculations. The patch was for Microsoft Security Bulletin MS08-014, a vulnerability in Excel that allows remote code execution. The patch was listed as critical and effects Microsoft Office Excel 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007 as well as Microsoft Office 2004 and 2008 for Mac. The bug causes certain calculations performed in Microsoft Excel to return a value of zero.

Commercial Break :53
Geekazine Podcast Promo :30

The Mike Tech Show Podcast promo :23

Intro to Interview 2:16
Most IT Solution Providers are used to selling and supporting hardware and software in a Microsoft Windows environment and many hold Microsoft certifications or are experienced Windows users themselves. For the vast majority of these professionals, it is a Windows world and those who want to be profitable in the IT industry must know and support Microsoft Windows and other Windows based solutions.

For some of them it is all they know and is considered their only option, but there are a few service providers who carve their niche in the industry by specializing in alternative solutions.

One of those Providers is Todd Hughes. Todd is a Linux guru and writes articles and tutorials on Linux related topics at The Force Field.net. His most recent article is called Selling Open Source. The article touches on selling open source applications to your customers as effective alternatives to commercial programs.

This week we’re going to talk to Todd and find out how he began selling Linux, where the market for Linux is now and how we can sell open source solutions to our customers at great profit in part 1 of our three part series on Selling Linux.

Todd Hughes Interview 12:47

Wrap up and Close :46

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