Thanks to hardware vendors working hand-in-glove with Microsoft, many people never realize there are alternatives to Windows and Office.

But that's not the case in the European Union (EU) and China, where computer users know all about Microsoft's dominance on the desktop -- and many don't like it. So, when Dirk Schrödter, digitalization minister for the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, announced the state government would switch from proprietary software "towards free, open-source systems and digitally sovereign IT workplaces for the state administration's approximately 30,000 employees," there was cause for rejoicing among Linux desktop fans.