Last year's position : Not Placed

How do you make a fool out of the billionaire boss of the world's largest software company? Before you say throw a custard pie in his face, we're actually referring to Steve Ballmer and his attempts to get the German city of Munich to stick with Microsoft's Windows instead of a switch to Linux for its 14,000 computers. Apparently Ballmer flew in to see Ude when word of the swap got out, offering close-to-free licences. Over night public sector - typically cash-strapped - authorities in places such as Spain and the UK asked whether they should follow suit. Rumour has it Munich is set to save €30m.