For years, hope has ebbed and flowed among many in the computer business that Linux, a freely available computer operating system which uses a penguin as its symbol, would become a viable alternative to Microsoft's Windows, the near universal standard for the world's personal computers. The industry-excluding Microsoft and its founder Bill Gates, of course-is currently riding another wave of hope. Will disappointment follow? Within the past month, some of the world's most powerful technology firms have pledged considerable support for Linux on the desktop. Hewlett-Packard (HP), which runs neck-and-neck with Dell as the largest seller of PCS in the world, said it will begin shipping some machines that run on Novell's flavour of the free operating system, called SUSE Linux. And Sun Microsystems, an arch-rival of Microsoft, announced-even as it was preparing to bury the hatchet with Microsoft officially-that it had persuaded Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, to sell cheap PCS using Linux and Sun's StarOffice suite of application programs, instead of the ubiquitous Microsoft Office. This follows a deal that Sun struck last autumn with several Chinese ministries to ship up to im PCS with Sun's Linux package to China this year, rising to "tens of millions in future years," according to Jonathan Schwartz, Sun's chief operating officer.
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