Date: Friday, March 30, 2007

Dell announces move to use Linux

Computer giant Dell has announced plans to sell a selection of its new PCs pre-installed with operating system Linux. The world?s second biggest manufacturer of computers made the move in response to a customer survey it carried out, in which over 70% of respondents suggested they would happily use Linux as the operating system on their home or work computer. Created in the early 1990s at Helsinki University by Finnish computer engineering student Linux Torvalds, who still leads its development today, Linux is an open source operating system. This means that anyone can access the code to view or amend it or to build other applications compatible with it. As a result it?s a very flexible system with various different versions to suit different needs. As well as being free to view and amend, it?s also free to download and use, unlike its expensive counterpart Microsoft Windows, which has always dominated the market and is used on over 90% of the world?s computers. Despite this, Linux has been a great success since its creation, but with its main use on servers rather than on home PCs. However, it is estimated that Linux is installed on around 5% of domestic computers and with this latest move by Dell this may be set to grow.