A David and Goliath battle is about to break out as a Bradford firm spearheads a national drive to take on computer magnate Bill Gates.

Bradford technical consulting company GBdirect is leading a campaign to persuade firms using Microsoft NT - Microsoft's tailor-made office computer package - to swap to the Linux system.

The firm has grown over the past few years but expects to grow substantially in the next few months as it installs Linux systems and carries out training for firms throughout Britain.

Mike Banahan, the Park Drive firm's managing director, said today: "We expect to treble our turnover in the next 12 months and take on extra staff to deal with the demand."

The system is seen as a real threat to Microsoft, the worldwide computer company run by Bill Gates.

GBdirect has itself converted to Linux which was set up by systems designers throughout the world as an alternative to Microsoft.

Linux is proving to be popular as an office server, providing file and print facilities along with Internet access and database and was used for the computer graphics for the blockbuster film Titanic.

Installation work has already taken place at Gazelle Travel in Bradford, Somerset County Council and a Glasgow firm has a Linux system on order from GBdirect. The company has also assisted Dunwood Polymer Services in Bingley with its Linux installation.

Mike Banahan added: "Since we changed to Linux we have had only one computer crash and nothing going wrong, whereas the person left with the Microsoft system has constant problems with her computer."

He is spreading the Linux message with a series of one-day events in London, Leeds and Edinburgh. The London events are on April 21 and May 12, the Leeds event is on April 23 and the Edinburgh one is on April 28.

Mr Banahan, a former lecturer at Bradford University's computer science department, says Linux can compete with most of what Microsoft NT can do - but can be downloaded for nothing from the Internet.

He said: "Linux is a serious threat to Microsoft because more and more people are using it around the world. There is no charge for the Linux software, whereas Microsoft NT's software could set you back £2,000."

The prime mover behind the Linux system is Linus Torvalds who has been described as a software rock star and attracts audiences of 10,000 to his seminars.

He started work on the system while he was a student in Finland and still works on it now he is employed as a California chip designer.

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