Well, in US, that probably is because of several reasons: 1. Lack of central organization, it's easier to work with and pay a single private company or a contr

Well, in US, that probably is because of several reasons: 1. Lack of central organization, it's easier to work with and pay a single private company or a contractor than hiring folks and working with open source projects that usually has no legal body, no billing, etc. Hiring and working with various companies to update, maintain, and so on with many projects isn't as easy as it sounds. (True, you could hire a single company to maintain a single distro for the whole gov't to use but is it cheaper than a private solution that 80% of the market already uses?). 2. Lobbyists, they'll explain it's cheaper to hire private companies to produce and cheaper maintenance over time especially since ^. 3. A share of citizens that doesn't believe in a bigger federal govt. 4. States want to do it their own ways instead of trusting the fed govt. 5. Distrust in govt in general on all fronts.