Things are changing so fast!Dell, the world's No 2 computer maker, has begun selling laptops and personal computers pre-installed with Linux software,the free operating system that aims to challenge Microsoft's dominant Windows platform.Unlike proprietary software, open-source software lets developers share code and add functions, and users only pay for custom features, maintenance and technical support.Dell has chosen to use a version of Linux called Ubuntu, which was developed by the South African millionaire Mark Shuttleworth and his UK company Canonical.
Linux is used as the operating system on less than 5 per cent of the world's computers, mainly on servers, but it is growing at 20-30 per cent a year.