Do you remember the famous Munich decision to switch 14,000 desktops from Windows to Linux, on May 28?

USA Today reported two days ago in this article what Microsoft tried to prevent this switch to the Open-Source OS. This deal was so important for M$ that were really able to give a lot! Here are some examples:

• They authorized Munich to have a new upgrade only after 6 years, instead of the usual 3 years contracts.
• They offered to install only Microsoft Word on some PCs, instead of their usual forced bundling of all Office applications.
• They were going to offer the City millions of dollars for training and support.
• Steve Balmer himself went to meet the mayor end of February, in order to explain why Microsoft had the best solution, and to make some special offers.
• They made a final offer of $21.7 million (from the original $36.6 million proposal).
• And much more!

But the City, mostly for strategic reasons, eventually decided to go for the more expensive Linux solution ($35.7 million against Microsoft's $21.7).

One interesting part is this quote from Christine Strobl (Munich council member): "And the more Microsoft discounted, the more it underscored the notion that as a sole supplier, Microsoft could - and has been - naming its own price".
I know very well some Corporates which did not get that point at all, and prefer to go the opposite way, wrongly thinking that an unique supplier means cheaper prices ;-)