“Remember Munich, and its city council’s 2003 decision to rip
out Microsoft Windows and Office, and to replace them with free
software? It was a seminal moment for open source, when Microsoft
brought its heaviest guns to bear–in the shape of Steve Ballmer,
no less, who made the city an offer it couldn’t refuse–and
failed:“The local government in Munich, Germany, has voted to move
14,000 computers from Microsoft’s Windows to the rival Linux
operating system, despite efforts by the software giant to hang
onto the multimillion-dollar contract…“