Spain: Extremadura to migrate 40,000 public sector desktops to Debian

Spain’s Publico recently reported (Spanish) that the autonomous regional government of Extremadura is planning to move all 40,000 of its desktops to Debian Linux.

In taking this step, Extremadura would be the leading Spanish public sector organisation for the use of free software, followed by Andalucia, País Valencià and Madrid.

It is hoped the migration will be completed by December this year. The swift migration will be possible because Extremadura will move to the open source desktop system that has been developed for and is currently used by the region’s public health services.

According to Extremadura’s CIO, Teodomiro Cayetano López, the Debian system will be rolled out first at the regional government’s headquarters in Mérida, followed by its offices in Badajoz and Cáceres.

Its size makes it Europe’s second largest open source desktop migration ranking it between the 90,000 of the French Gendarmerie Nationale (news passim) and the well-advanced 14,000 desktop migration plans of the German city of Munich (news passim).