Article from Sueddeutsche Zeitung (German)


Babelfish English version


"The Green Party City Councilman Jens Muehlhaus expressed "doubts about the seriousness of such a last-minute offer".

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Another official expressed the sentiment that this was "playing games". What Microsoft doesn't seem to realize is that the issue is not primarily the up-front cost of ownership; indeed, the cost of the SuSE Linux bid had already exceeded the XP offering by some 3 million euros. Germany in particular does not like the monopolistic aspects of Microsoft. The decision for Linux had been made for qualitative and strategic reasons. The final decision will be made tomorrow; but it already seems to be squarely for Linux.