> In November Munich city council decided to revert to Windows by 2020 with all systems being replaced by Windows 10 counterparts.

> Reasons cited were adoption and users being unhappy with the lack of software available for Linux.

> A report commissioned by Munich and undertaken by Accenture found the most important issues were organizational.

> In 2018, journalistic group Investigate Europe released a video documentary via German public television network ARD, wherein it is claimed that the majority of city workers were satisfied with the operating system, with council members insinuating that the reversal was a personally motivated decision by lord mayor Dieter Reiter.

> Reiter denied that he had initiated the reversal in gratitude for Microsoft moving its German headquarters from Unterschleißheim back to Munich.

It's not as clear-cut as you're painting it.

It's not clear-cut in the sense that Munich's IT landscape was and is fragmented which made and makes it very easy to blame IT problems on LiMux. But that doesn't make me believe even for one second that Microsoft didn't lobby their way back to Munich. Here's a little story from some years back about Microsoft's lobbying efforts to prevent usage of ODF as a standard in the UK:

https://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240234078/Government-op...

Shortly before the official announcement of the end of LiMux, Microsoft's German headquarter moved to Munich [1]. It's also estimated to cost about 89 million € to return back to Windows [2 (german)], including 24 million € for "external consulting".

1: https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-germany-moves-into-a-new-h...

2: https://www.heise.de/ct/ausgabe/2017-26-Muenchens-Rueckfall-...

That is still conspiracy and not "Microsoft killing a project".

So, hypothetically of course, if Microsoft subtly let the new Mayor Dieter Reiter know that they will only build their new headquarter in Munich if Windows was to replace LiMux, then what about this could not be considered as Microsoft killing LiMux? Sure, they didn't directly pull the plug, but that's semantics.

Wow, I had no idea. That seemed so big for OSS, and the killing blow was relatively recent.

It doesn't seem as if MSFT has entirely changed.

May be of further interest to German-speaking folks in Munich: there will be a discussion about LiMux on 11th June with former Munich mayor Christian Ude and others.

https://www.gruene-muenchen.de/terminliste/termin/freie-fahr...