Paris Weighs Shift to Linux from Microsoft Paris Weighs Shift to Linux from Microsoft

The open-source computer system known as Linux won a tough battle over Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) this year when the City of Munich decided to change the operating software of 14,000 government computers, despite the personal intervention of Microsoft’s chief executive, Steve Ballmer.

Now, it is the City of Paris that is in the sights of the open-source software camp, which has emerged as the only serious competitive threat against Microsoft’s 90-plus percent hold on the world market for computer operating systems. Factors of cost, security and a reluctance to be beholden to a single American software vendor have led governments in Europe and elsewhere to take a hard look at open software like Linux, which is freely modified and shared over the Internet.