Bergen postpones desktop Linux migration

Open source council insists its Linux plans are on track

Bergen City Council in Norway has denied that it has abandoned its flagship Linux migration project, branding such reports "exaggerated" and insisting it has already completed its project to move many of its servers to Linux. However, the council admitted it has postponed plans to migrate 12,000 desktops to Linux, due to other investment priorities.

Reports in Computerworld Norway, subsequently picked up by at least one blogger, said Bergen had halted the migration from HP/UX servers and Microsoft Windows desktops to Novell's Suse Linux platform, citing training issues and fears that an exaggerated faith in Linux was damaging some functions.

However, Lars Tveit, director for competition and development at Bergen City Council, said his comments had been taken out of context and that despite some challenges during the migration, leading to increased use of expensive consultants, the overall project to migrate servers in its education and other departments had been a success.

Plans to move 12,000 desktops to OpenOffice and Linux, however, have been put on ice, according to Tviet. He said the main reason for the postponement was that the Council wanted to instead invest in citizen-facing IT services, but he also admitted that retraining staff familiar Windows would have proved a "burden".

"When we need to upgrade [our desktops] we'll do a full evaluation between Linux and Microsoft," Tviet added. "We have not said we'll never do [desktop] Linux."

The postponement is likely to be interpreted in some quarters as further proof that Linux on the desktop is struggling to repeat the success it has had in servers. But Ger Christensen, country manager for Novell in Norway, insisted that Bergen's decision had been driven by a reordering of priorities rather than problems with desktop Linux.

He added that growing numbers of customers are considering Linux on the desktop and that the biggest barrier to adoption remains education. "When people see it they realise it gives them options and is quick and easy to deploy and manage," he said. "But people are unrealistic to expect revolution rather than evolution."