Earlier we had a post about the adoption of open source on the desktop in the Burmingham Council, In this post lets discuss a presentation at the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo titled "Client OS and Office - Charting a course to Longhorn (or Linux)", Michael Silver the Gartner Analyst said that just because Linux is free does not mean it is cheap.

Among the impediments to using open-source office software products among businesses are compatibility and fidelity issues.

But Silver said this is also a good time for business and enterprise customers to take a close look at Linux and StarOffice/OpenOffice.org on the desktop "as we now have a better idea of what's coming in Longhorn [the next version of Windows] and how compelling that will be."

Linux on the desktop for mainstream business users has also "passed the peak of hype" and real deployments are starting, so "we'll now see what some of the holes actually are," he said.

But Silver also cautioned the audience not to believe all they hear about Linux on the desktop, listing what he sees as the 10 myths around this. These are that:

• Linux is be less expensive than Windows because StarOffice/OpenOffice.org can be used instead of Microsoft Office
• Linux is free
• There are no forced upgrades. ("We expect there to be as little support for older versions of Linux as for older Windows," he said.)
• Linux requires significantly less labor to manage
• Linux has a lower TCO than Windows because of the available management tools
• Applications are inexpensive or free
• Skills are transferable
• The hardware can be kept longer if Linux is used, or older hardware can be used;
• Linux should be deployed as soon as a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement expires, and
• Linux on the desktop is an all-or-nothing equation