Windows Losing Out To Linux – Worldwide Trend

Governments around the world have either transitioned from Windows to Linux or are planning to do so.

Countries That Have Already Transitioned

• The German State of Schleswig-Holstein: announced in April 2024
• Denmark: completed a full transition to Linux and LibreOffice in late 2025
• France: France’s Gendarmerie (police force) completed its transition to Linux in 2013

France has since announced that, based on the success of its Gendarmerie’s transition, the entire government will now be following suit and transitioning from Windows to Linux.

NOTE: France currently employs around 5.7 million civil servants

It’s well known that in most countries, the government and its agencies are the largest employers of people, and with more and more countries making the decision to dump Windows in favor of Linux, this trend has to be concerning for Microsoft.

The effect can only mean a substantial reduction in the number of PCs running Windows, potentially involving hundreds of thousands per country and collectively numbering in the millions. However, even more concerning for Microsoft is the potential for lost revenue.

Ignoring the obvious loss of income for enterprise licensing, which is substantial, almost all government deployments also involve subscriptions for Microsoft software, such as Office 365 and Teams, so the overall negative impact on Microsoft’s revenue stream is almost certain to be on a scale that makes shareholders sit up and take notice.

I have to say, Microsoft only has itself to blame. The company’s decision-making over recent years has, to say the very least, left a lot to be desired:

• The introduction of stringent Windows 11 system requirements renders millions of perfectly capable PCs non-compliant
• Deprecating popular applications – such as WordPad, Skype, Windows Live Mail – and replacing them with inferior alternatives
• The decision to move to a rental system for most Microsoft software
• The ongoing issues with Windows Updates after Microsoft sacked expert coders in favor of relying on input from amateur insiders
• The insistence on permeating Windows with Copilot (AI)
• Microsoft’s appalling tech support history (or should I say lack of tech support)
• And on and on

BOTTOM LINE:

It seems that home consumers aren’t the only ones who are disillusioned with Windows, and Microsoft has to be concerned that more countries are likely to follow suit. In my opinion, the situation is so critical that Microsoft might well end up with a new leadership team or, at the very least, Satya Nadella’s job must be in jeopardy.

Never underestimate the power of shareholders; all they are interested in is the bottom line and returns on their investments.

—