No, please stop with this garbage misinformation. Microsoft made a (suspected) under the table deal with the Munich government at the time to setup a Microsoft office in Munich if they switched back to Windows.

That's what the news reported on endlessly. That's the narrative that keeps getting falsely repeated over and over, and no one ever checks the BS stories they spread.

The rest of the story didn't make headlines, where the new incoming Munich government said "hell no!" (prob in German) and continued the Linux rollout.

Today the environment is a mix of Linux and Windows, but they already have a large focus on FOSS software.

Despite the astonishingly stupid decision to roll their own in-house distro (LiMux), the program was massively successful, with Linux users filling only 40% the number of tickets the Windows users did.

That deal that totally had nothing to do with Microsoft relocating their headquarters closer to Munich

Im not an expert on this, but it seems like Ms was worried that success of Limux would be the drip that starts the trickle so to speak. It made sense for them to do whatever it took to patch that leak.

Things have really changed since then though. Valve has been very successful in a Linux end user environment, and Eu is becoming disenfranchised from the US rather than Microsoft specifically.

I think Munich's motivations were financial, but Frances will be ideological.

With these things in mind, the calculus has changed. That doesn't necessarily mean France won't fail, but id be surprised if Microsoft pursues them in the same way.