Most specialized software are web apps running in a browser hosted on the cloud these days. I’m sure they exist, but I couldn’t name any HR, ERM, CRM, … software that’s not a web app.
The desktop OS is becoming irrelevant. That’s why those who want a Mac or Linux notebook can make it work, at least from a purely technical point of view; i.e. if the company allows it. That’s also, why there will never be a year of the Linux desktop. (I mention Macs here, because while OS X gets some commercial software that you won’t get on Linux, it’s not that much outside of some niches)
There will never be a year of the Linux desktop because you gain very little from replacing Edge on Windows with Firefox on Linux (a different software that does the same thing). However, you loose some specialised software and your IT supplier, your IT service provider, half of your IT staff and some of your non-IT employees’ skills. This does not sound like a good business case.
Linux on the desktop never happened, because Linux on the server replaced desktop applications.
I don’t know if it is fair to call it a disaster. I don’t know enough from the inside, but I believe in retrospect the goal was maybe to ambitious or plain wrong.
They were attempting to port huge amounts of decades old Office macros to OpenOffice. That failed, but before the LiMux project they had already failed to migrate the same to a modern version of MS Office.
The goal for LiMux was to be a better Windows than the best Windows Microsoft would offer at the time. Literally impossible.
That combined with strong lobbying and users confused with a different UI and probably a lot of small day-to-day issues (which happens with any software, but can make an IT department look bad) made it politically hard to sustain an ‘experiment’.
The current IT lead of Munich, hired after migrating back to Microsoft, does not seem to be a Microsoft fan.
Just to commenting to keep the knowledge: There are other projects that can de-drm audible. Amazon probably knows this and tolerates it. In fact, a long time ago all downloads on Linux did not have DRM. Those days are gone, but this https://github.com/mkb79/audible-cli should work.
As soon as you have ‘activation bytes’ many tools can play and convert the downloads.
I’m not worried about e-ink price tags. Aldi has them. I’m worry if it says, use your phone to find special offers only for you.