While I would love to see them never going back, here in Germany, all it takes is some corrupt politician taking a huge bribe from a lobbyist and swoosh, they are back to Microslop.
Edit: Knowing our little corrupt fuckers in charge in German politics, the bribe probably doesn’t even have to be mediocre.
Seriously, enshitification is the only thing US companies do well these days. They just dig deeper moats around their walled gardens because they’re too greedy to make decent products that people actually want.
It’s also a consequence of low taxes on capital gains and corporate profits.
When those taxes were higher it made more sense to reinvest the profits back into your own company. You’d build a reputation and a structure that would pay out you and your family for a hundred years.
Now the dream is to build up a company just enough to sell it to some megacorp and cash out asap, with you and your family living off of investment money that only increases over time.
No, please stop with this garbage misinformation. Microsoft made a (suspected) under the table deal with the Munich government at the time to setup a Microsoft office in Munich if they switched back to Windows.
That’s what the news reported on endlessly. That’s the narrative that keeps getting falsely repeated over and over, and no one ever checks the BS stories they spread.
The rest of the story didn’t make headlines, where the new incoming Munich government said “hell no!” (prob in German) and continued the Linux rollout.
Today the environment is a mix of Linux and Windows, but they already have a large focus on FOSS software.
Despite the astonishingly stupid decision to roll their own in-house distro (LiMux), the program was massively successful, with Linux users filling only 40% the number of tickets the Windows users did.
Are you afraid to provide any reference to your claim? Do you need extra time making up stuff?
“Die 43 000 städtischen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter nutzen also mittlerweile wieder Word, Outlook und PowerPoint […] Einfacher sei die Software-Frage bei den Servern im städtischen Rechenzentrum zu beantworten. Zwar haben man durchaus auch Windows-Server, aber die meisten laufen mit Linux, so Gernhardt.” (29. Juni 2025) https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-verwaltung-open-source-it-microsoft-li.3256886
So Linux on servers, Windows including MS Office on desktops. The migration to Linux on desktops was completely reversed.
So where is ““hell no!” (prob in German) and continued the Linux rollout”? Where has it been “garbage misinformation”? Where are the exact stats about opening tickets? After all, you claim “Linux users filling only 40% the number of tickets the Windows users did”. That’s pretty specific.
Not surprised. From what I’ve heard from pretty much every German person I’ve talked to, Bavaria is basically their Texas (read UP if you’re Indian, not sure about analogies for other countries).
Im not an expert on this, but it seems like Ms was worried that success of Limux would be the drip that starts the trickle so to speak. It made sense for them to do whatever it took to patch that leak.
Things have really changed since then though. Valve has been very successful in a Linux end user environment, and Eu is becoming disenfranchised from the US rather than Microsoft specifically.
I think Munich’s motivations were financial, but Frances will be ideological.
With these things in mind, the calculus has changed. That doesn’t necessarily mean France won’t fail, but id be surprised if Microsoft pursues them in the same way.
Once these countries leave, they’ll never go back. And then the rest of us get better alternatives to this enshitification model.
While I would love to see them never going back, here in Germany, all it takes is some corrupt politician taking a huge bribe from a lobbyist and swoosh, they are back to Microslop.
Edit: Knowing our little corrupt fuckers in charge in German politics, the bribe probably doesn’t even have to be mediocre.
Seriously, enshitification is the only thing US companies do well these days. They just dig deeper moats around their walled gardens because they’re too greedy to make decent products that people actually want.
Enshittification, AI slop and fascism are America’s greatest exports. And that’s not even a joke.
We grow pretty good weed too, that isn’t nothing.
Not exported overseas though.
I think enshitification is a product of public traded companies promising infinite growth, not necessarily a problem of US only companies.
It’s also a consequence of low taxes on capital gains and corporate profits.
When those taxes were higher it made more sense to reinvest the profits back into your own company. You’d build a reputation and a structure that would pay out you and your family for a hundred years.
Now the dream is to build up a company just enough to sell it to some megacorp and cash out asap, with you and your family living off of investment money that only increases over time.
Look up LiMux and the massive Microsoft deal that followed.
No, please stop with this garbage misinformation. Microsoft made a (suspected) under the table deal with the Munich government at the time to setup a Microsoft office in Munich if they switched back to Windows.
That’s what the news reported on endlessly. That’s the narrative that keeps getting falsely repeated over and over, and no one ever checks the BS stories they spread.
The rest of the story didn’t make headlines, where the new incoming Munich government said “hell no!” (prob in German) and continued the Linux rollout.
Today the environment is a mix of Linux and Windows, but they already have a large focus on FOSS software.
Despite the astonishingly stupid decision to roll their own in-house distro (LiMux), the program was massively successful, with Linux users filling only 40% the number of tickets the Windows users did.
Citation Needed
You first
Are you afraid to provide any reference to your claim? Do you need extra time making up stuff?
“Die 43 000 städtischen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter nutzen also mittlerweile wieder Word, Outlook und PowerPoint […] Einfacher sei die Software-Frage bei den Servern im städtischen Rechenzentrum zu beantworten. Zwar haben man durchaus auch Windows-Server, aber die meisten laufen mit Linux, so Gernhardt.” (29. Juni 2025) https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-verwaltung-open-source-it-microsoft-li.3256886
So Linux on servers, Windows including MS Office on desktops. The migration to Linux on desktops was completely reversed.
So where is ““hell no!” (prob in German) and continued the Linux rollout”? Where has it been “garbage misinformation”? Where are the exact stats about opening tickets? After all, you claim “Linux users filling only 40% the number of tickets the Windows users did”. That’s pretty specific.
That deal that totally had nothing to do with Microsoft relocating their headquarters closer to Munich
The Bavarian state government is still entirely in Microslop’s pocket
Not surprised. From what I’ve heard from pretty much every German person I’ve talked to, Bavaria is basically their Texas (read UP if you’re Indian, not sure about analogies for other countries).
Im not an expert on this, but it seems like Ms was worried that success of Limux would be the drip that starts the trickle so to speak. It made sense for them to do whatever it took to patch that leak.
Things have really changed since then though. Valve has been very successful in a Linux end user environment, and Eu is becoming disenfranchised from the US rather than Microsoft specifically.
I think Munich’s motivations were financial, but Frances will be ideological.
With these things in mind, the calculus has changed. That doesn’t necessarily mean France won’t fail, but id be surprised if Microsoft pursues them in the same way.
Don’t listen to that other commenter. They’re wrong about the Munich LiMux story. It keeps getting repeated but it’s not correct.