[sofixa]

> they once again go for creating their own forks, instead of financing development of existing software then I'll know the initiative failed.

Once again? When did they do that? They have been funding various open source projects (like VLC, Libre Office) for quite a while:

[plastic-enjoyer]

I think Bavaria developed their own Linux distro instead of using an established one. It failed horrendously.

[sofixa]

> I think Bavaria developed their own Linux distro instead of using an established one

Yes, with all their configs, packages and certifications that were needed. Not really a problem.

> It failed horrendously

Because Microsoft came in, promised to relocate their HQ to Munich, and surprise, it was decided to come back to Windows. This was after reports found that although it took longer than expected, adoption was widespread (only a small minority of desktops remained on Windows for the few Windows specific apps they had), things were working well, user happyness was good, stability was good, and tons of taxpayer money had been saved.

[luke5441]

Things like LiMux, I guess

[sofixa]

Was that really a fork, or just a distribution with all the configs and packages that Munich wanted and needed?

[luke5441]

I don't know details, but my guess is was more the latter.

The problem is that instead of having people assigned to working with Debian to make Debian useful in a government setting, they just did their own fork/distribution. Yes, the former involves a lot of Debian politics and isn't as fast because other Debian members might insist on proper/more generic solutions.