Gronholm leads Loeb in NZ Rally

Finland's Marcus Gronholm held a 13-second lead over championship rival Sebastian Loeb after the first day of the Rally of New Zealand.

Gronholm, who leads France's Loeb by eight points after 10 of 16 events, won the first two stages in his Ford Focus.

The two-time world champion is chasing a record sixth New Zealand victory as he seeks to stop Citroen's Loeb taking his fourth straight WRC title.

Compatriot and fellow Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen is in third place.

Tyre choices proved important on the first two stages on the gravel roads through the Waikato district on New Zealand's North Island.

Gronholm and Loeb were on softer compounds, while Hirvonen used tyres less suited to the conditions and was more than 30 seconds behind Gronholm after two stages.

He was 49.2 seconds down in third place by the end of the day's final stage.

Australian Chris Atkinson, whose Ford finished day one in fourth place, had trouble with the balance of his car.

Fifth-placed Jiri-Matti Latvala hit a rock near the end of stage two and finished the day with his Ford's front bumper missing.

Britain's Matthew Wilson, who finished the day in 10th, slid off into a fence on an early stage. He was able to reverse onto the road and continue.

"Fortunately the farmer has built a good fence and that stopped us going too far off the road," Wilson said.

Loeb won the day's third and fourth stages, while Atkinson took the fifth.

HP computer sales 'overtake Dell'

Hewlett-Packard (HP) has overtaken Dell to become the world's largest seller of personal computers, according to a survey by market research firm Gartner.

HP had 16.3% of the global market in the third quarter of 2006, compared with rival Dell's 16.1%, Gartner said.

In the three months to the end of September, HP shipped 9.65 million units, while Dell shipped 9.54 million.

The survey will come as welcome news for HP, which has recently been mired in an illegal spying scandal.

The firm, which is being investigated by California's Attorney General, is alleged to have spied on directors and other employees who it thought might be leaking unfavourable stories to the media.

The crisis at the company led to the resignation of HP chairman Patricia Dunn at the end of last month.

'Faster problem'

Gartner analysts said HP had overtaken Dell because it was better adapting to changing market conditions.

This time last year, Gartner put Dell's global share at 16.6%, and HP's at 15.1%.

"HP continues to take better advantage of the faster growth segments such as the consumer market," said Gartner's Mikako Kitagawa.

"Dell felt the effects of the weak sales in the US market, and it gave up some ground."

A separate survey by International Data Corp put HP and Dell level, saying each had a global share of 17.3%.

Dell gives the go-ahead for Linux

Computer giant Dell will start to sell PCs preinstalled with open source Linux operating systems, the firm has said.

The second largest computer maker in the world said it had chosen to offer Linux in response to customer demand.

Earlier this year, 100,000 people took part in a Dell survey. More than 70% of respondents said they would use Linux.

Dell has not released details of which versions of Linux it will use or which computers it will run on, but promised an update in the coming weeks.

"Dell has heard you," said a statement on the firm's website. "Our first step in this effort is offering Linux preinstalled on select desktop and notebook systems."

Currently the company only offers Microsoft Windows on its computers, but sells servers running Linux.

Members of the Linux community welcomed the move.

Nick Veitch, senior editor of Linux Format magazine, described it as "significant".

"I think it sends a message in two ways," he said.

"One is that a major company is confident enough to be able to offer Linux preinstalled on a desktop - that sends a signal that Linux is usable to the average user - and I think it shows that there is a growing demand for an alternative to Windows."

'No surprise'

Microsoft is the world's largest software maker and its proprietary Windows operating system is found on nine out of every 10 personal computers.

While companies such as Microsoft earn money by licensing and charging for use of their products, Linux code is freely available.

That means anyone can modify it or develop applications for it. As a result, there are many different types, or distributions, of Linux operating systems that offer different functionality.

As Linux is free to download and distribute, the exact numbers of users is difficult to quantify.

However, analysts believe that approximately 6% of computers users run Linux, similar to the numbers choosing Apple Macs.

Big business and governments, particularly in the developing world, are also starting to exploit the flexibility of open source code.

The UK Cabinet Office recently evaluated the operating system and approved it as a viable alternative to proprietary systems. Car manufacturer Peugeot has also rolled it out across its employees' desktop computers.

But until now there has not been a major computer manufacturer willing to preinstall Linux on consumer computers.

"The fact that Dell is offering a desktop with Linux is no surprise," said Mr Veitch.

"The surprise is that it has taken them this long."

Lenovo to offer Linux on laptops

Lenovo, one of the world's biggest PC manufacturers, is to start selling laptops to business and consumers with Linux pre-installed on the machines.

Linux is a free, open source operating system developed as an alternative to systems such as Microsoft's Windows.

Novell will provide the Linux software on the laptops, which are due to go on sale at the end of the year.

Earlier this year PC maker Dell also announced it would start shipping PCs with the Linux OS installed.

Lenovo announced its plans at the start of LinuxWorld, an annual conference held in San Francisco.

Dell introduced Linux-powered PCs after chief executive Michael Dell asked customers for suggestions for new products on the company's website: Linux PCs were the most-requested item.

Linux was first released to the public almost 16 years ago and was developed by Linus Torvalds, who wanted to create a non-commercial alternative to an operating system used in many universities.

Linux can be freely distributed, modified and used by anyone who wants it. It is predominantly used to power web servers and while its growth on desktop computers has been limited to technology specialists, its adoption by Lenovo and Dell points to wider acceptance.

Analysts believe that approximately 6% of computers users run Linux, similar to the numbers choosing Apple Macs.