So fine them and require all governemtn documents and legal documents of anybkind to be in a true open format. Its only a compatibility problem if people continue to use their format.

There was criticism at the time, but the people who had to work with it every day. welcomed it after a very short time. The end of the Limux project happened all by itself, because Munich's mayor is an MS fan boy and said so openly at the time. It was not because of technical problems or anything else. It was just a huge kindergarten child.

https://joinup.ec.europa.eu/collection/open-source-observatory-osor/document/limux-it-evolution-open-source-success-story-never

If they abuse their monopoly it sounds like the DMA should be applied.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't think documents require a lot of new features.

Or with creating Microsoft offices in their cities, like they did with Munich.

That's not how they do it, of only because it would tank Windows PR image as "free stuff".

What you do is arrange it with the government to alocate huge budget sums to purchasing Windows and other stuff from Microsoft at normal market value, then return half the money to the government officials under the desk in whatever form you care or can get away with, straight up bribes if you can swing it.

Microsoft gets to remain dominant, Windows appears to have been purchased at normal value and gets to keep its clout as fancy expensive stuff, and the decision makers get mad money out of it. Everybody wins.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_licensing_corruption_scandal

Or they will just sell office 365 and other SaaS

Correct. Bavaria once tried the same thing, but then MS went to the local politicians, sucked their dicks a bit and boom, back to MS products it is! Hopefully the north doesn't fall for that kind of shit, and they likely won't because Bavaria is a backwards piece of shit of a Bundesland while Schleswig Holstein is kinda cool.

Hopefully this at least forces Microsoft to rethink riddling their bullshit with ads. I feel sorry for people who are still stuck with that trash for whatever reason.

And ofc, Microsoft is well aware and is not interested in letting that happen.

This is true, but there are only so many times that they can pull off what they did in Munich. If enough cities keep trying at this, there's no way they're going to be able to hold the floodgates back forever.

I'm usually a pessimist, but stories like this actually do get my hopes up

Not even trained. Same browser, same login...

When web apps took off a decade ago, I was secretly rooting for this.

OSes shouldnt matter anymore. Everything should funnel through a browser. WASM is already bringing traditional desktop apps to the web. Microsoft and Apple can die in a fire.

But with the migration, now the fight is to stop Google from owning browsers.

Incredibly based.

History tells us that 85% of these people will move to Windows 11 despite what they say.

There is a real opportunity here for companies though.

1. Move employees to Office 365 online today ( see how many truly need the desktop apps )

2. Start moving early adopters to Linux ( still using Office 365 online )

3. Work to identify and replace any other software that is Windows only

4. When Windows 10 goes end-of-support, move everybody else to Linux

The few that really need Excel desktop could probably run it in a VM or via a virtual desktop ( thin client ).

You could probably stop there. Honestly, I doubt it would even bother Microsoft that much. Office and Azure is the business now.

From there, you could try to advance further if you want.

5. Move early adopters off Office 365

6. Drop Office 365

Honestly though, for many companies, you could almost get Office 365 for free just be combining it with your Azure spend and getting a discount.

The LiMux project in Germany had some shady stuff going on in the background. Microsoft almost certainly bribed the new conservative government to switch everything back to Windows. There was a great documentary about it from DW that interviewed some whistleblowers, but I can no longer find it. However, Quidsup on Youtube did a good video encapsulating the course of events.

EDIT: I was able to find the documentary by searching the old title in German, which brought up the original German version, and from there found the English translation!