The article carefully avoids mentioning the politicians elected in 2014 who reverted the Linux installation back to Microsoft were funded by Microsoft and they bribed electors with the promise of moving MS HQ there. They did setup a large campus so credit due, they paid the bribe

Corporate media doing corporate media things.

What the zdnet article does not mentions: Today, there are many more cities, regional governments, and public organisations which use open source software. And one advantage of FOSS is, if one city implements a solution to a task or a special process, it can be shared freely with all others.

It fails because it’s not aligned with the political agenda

And the political agenda is determined by corrupt politicians. See the last time Munich converted to Linux then scrapped the whole project when Microsoft decided to build their new HQ in Munich.

It’s not returning to the Linux desktop, however — not yet, anyway. Instead, it’s switching its infrastructure programs from proprietary software to open-source software ... Rather than making desktop Linux its center pole, the city is replacing individual layers of proprietary infrastructure where it can make a practical case.

It seems Munich has learned from its failure in the past? The German state of Schleswig-Holstein has been managing its transformation from MS to Linux in a similar way, and it's reportedly very successful.

What is important is the sequence of events. Before ditching the Microsoft OS, you'd go for the software and services that ties yout to the broader Microsoft system. The OS is the last turn, not the first.

There are many good points in the article imo.

The answer to getting politicians to support open-source software in the long run is to connect open source with priorities they understand. These include budgets, public services ...

The new Munich IT plan also embraced the “public money, public code” principle: software developed with public funding should, where appropriate, be available for others to inspect, use, and improve ...

The city is also investing in the open-source ecosystem. Its Open Source Sabbatical program supports developers working on open-source projects. The broader purpose is to support improvements and funding components used in open-source municipal services ...

[Edit typo.]