The real challenge to Microsoft

Linux: The real challenge to Microsoft - at Moneyweek.co.uk - the best of the week's international financial media.

What is LinuxInvented in the mid-1990s by Linus Torvalds, a young Finnish student at the University of Helsinki, Linux is a computer operating system with a difference. Unlike systems such as Microsoft Windows or the variants of Unix, it is an "open source system", which means that its codes are freely available to anybody who wants to download them. The software is under constant development by a large community of programmers, who deliver upgrades and fix bugs via the internet. It is also designed to run on almost any computer, which makes it a cheap, flexible option for big computer users. So far, Linux has mostly been used to run servers, the back-office machines that handle email, web pages, file sharing and printing.

Who uses LinuxUntil recently, it was little known outside the tech sector, but now it is gaining acceptance elsewhere. According to one enthusiast, "2001 was the year of interest, 2002 the year of pilot projects, and 2003 is the year of deployment". Linux now has more than 25% of the market for server operating systems. The market used to be dominated by Unix and Windows. It is also used by a third of all public websites. Companies that have embraced Linux include TimeWarner, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Boeing. Linux is developing a similar following in the public sector: municipal governments from Munich to Tucson now use Linux, and the UK Government now insists that an open source solution is included in every project evaluation.

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