a p f e l k r a u t . o r g

As announced by heise online today, our fellows from Redmond have initiated a new Web site to warn you about counterfeit software (Check out “Protect Yourself” - “View examples of counterfeit software”). For example this …

[taken from www.howtotell.com]

… is a counterfeit copy of Microsoft Windows XP Professional, really!

In my Oxford Advanced Dictionary the term counterfeit is defined as “deliberately made so as to be exactly like sth., in order to deceive” amongst others. In respect of this interpretation I see myself obliged to slightly modify this warning:

Attention !!!

Most probably you have received a CD with your new computer or quite unlikely you have received it after handing over quite a bunch of money to your favorite dealer. So if this CD looks something like this:

[taken from www.howtotell.com]

Be aware that you have been deceived ! Although the finishing with the amazing glittering holograms might suggest that you are holding a CD with a high-end, secure, user friendly and multi-tasking operating system in your hands … I am sorry, but this is a fallacy! It is just Windows … and you might agree that you can get cheaper and presumably more beautiful saucers at your local housewares store.

But if the CD looks similar to this one:

Congratulations ! You made the right choice and are holding a CD with a real high-end, secure, user friendly and multi-tasking operating system in your hands. Even if the finishing of the CD and the way how you got it may not be as our fellows from Redmond want it. Let me guess … it was handed over to you by a long-haired, round-bellied, pizza-addicted nerd (if one may allow me to draw this meanwhile old-fashioned picture of those “Linux guys”)? Or did you even just download it from the Internet and burn it by yourself?! So as long as there is something like Ubuntu, SuSE or whatever Linux distro on the CD, you can be sure that you have chosen the right OS.

@Microsoft: Do you really think that the use of your software makes so stupid that one cannot distinguish between a genuine copy or a counterfeit copy of your masterpieces? Or let me put it another way, who at all would make an illegal copy of your software while there is software for nearly every need available for free?