Of late I keep getting an error message on my Windows XP Desktop that says “You might be a victim of counterfeit software, click on this to learn more”. Try as I might, this message just does not go away. Worse, my login button does not appear for a full 5 seconds (it does a countdown and then allows me to login) . Now, I have a full legal copy of Windows Vista Home Edition but that caused my computer to be excruciatingly slow, hence I shifted to Windows XP Professional (which was supplied by my hardware vendor). Now I’m unable to use the Windows Vista product code for my Windows XP installation and hence my Windows XP installation is detected as counterfeit software. :-(

This set me thinking that Linux on the desktop could emerge as a viable option soon. Even today there are Linux distributions such as Linspire, Xandros and Novell that closely mimic Microsoft Windows in user experience. And with tools like WINE, you can run many Windows-only applications on Linux.

One of the reasons why Linux has not been too successful in the Desktop is also availability. It is nice to say, “just download it from the Internet”, but downloading over a GB of software is anything but fun even over my home broadband. So other options are to scrounge around for Computer magazine CDs that often times carry some Linux distributions. I think there is a market for a subscription based offering around Desktop Linux, where I pay a fixed amount each year and in return get a CD every month or so with the latest distributions, patches and applications.

I finally managed to get my hands on a recent version of Knoppix and have been booting off the Live CD since. Now I need to fix the problem of “counterfeit software”…