Returning an open verdict

There was much hoo-ha following the visit by Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer to Munich earlier this year, when he tried to persuade the area’s local
government to change its mind about dropping Microsoft Windows in favour of Linux. He failed.

Does the decision of a bunch of Bavarian civil servants tell us anything about the appetite for open source software in the wider world, and does it
have any pointers for what your customers are thinking?

Outside government, the answer seems to be no. Over the past 12 months Quocirca Research has looked at end-user adoption of open source software.

The results show that at the start of 2003 only 19 per cent of European companies had actually implemented Linux anywhere, and 57 per cent said they
were not considering doing so. Why is this?