Last time I worked on base with a "secure" computer, every IT policy I read was silently appended with "...but your computer also has Visual Studio installed on

Last time I worked on base with a "secure" computer, every IT policy I read was silently appended with "...but your computer also has Visual Studio installed on it, and you have permission to run anything you can compile." But it was also airgapped from the other computer in my cube, that could reach the public internet, so not much point in writing my own ad-blocker. Mostly, it just made it a pain in the ass to use third-party GUI controls and data visualization libraries, and open-source was effectively banned. There's also a pretty wide divide between the work environment of the genuine government employees and the contractors' employees. Anecdotally, there's still a bit of a good-ol'boy network pulling on the purse strings in the industry. If you have the choice, and you work in tech, prefer to take contracted jobs from Navy and Coast Guard customers over other branches. I won't say why, but you'll probably be happier if you do.