'What a great day it will be when I don't have to have a dual-boot computing environment where I am always switching between Linux and Windows, depending on the problem of the day,' Schadt said.

Installing the Windows software 'has not been too painful,' he said. 'I think Windows will catch up quickly [to Linux] if the environment works well, which does remain to be seen.'

Microsoft's announcement was made during the annual SuperComputing conference in Seattle. Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was slated to deliver the keynote address Tuesday at the event, which runs through Friday.

High-performance computing is a new market for Microsoft. The latest list of supercomputers released yesterday by Top500.org showed that 74 percent of the 500 fastest supercomputers in the world run Linux, 20 percent use various flavors of Unix, and the rest run other operating systems, including Mac OS X. None run Windows.

But the door to the market is now opening for Microsoft with the rapid uptake in 32- or 64-bit systems. More than three-fourths of the 500 fastest supercomputers used Intel Corp. or Advanced Micro Devices Inc. processors, which both support Windows. By contrast, 41 percent of supercomputers relied on Intel or AMD chips in November 2003, and just 12 percent did so in November 2002, according to Top500.org.