Lenovo, the world's third-largest personal computer maker it will begin offering the Linux-based operating system on some of its notebook computers, joining other computer companies adopting open-source systems.

The firm, which acquired IBM's personal computer division in 2005, said Monday that it will begin to offer factory-installation of Novell's SUSE Linux on its Thinkpad T series line of notebooks.

Dell, the world's second largest computer maker behind Hewlett Packard, began selling computers with Linux in May.

Linux is a free, open source operating system which is used as an alternative to systems such as Microsoft's Windows. It enjoys a sizeable market share in server applications, but lags behind Windows on personal computers.

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