Seriously, the government would rather burn $50k on the manpower that makes the decision to not pay $10k in software licenses. The beltway contracting space is

Seriously, the government would rather burn $50k on the manpower that makes the decision to not pay $10k in software licenses. The beltway contracting space is about selling a lot of butts in a lot of seats, and a bit of hardware that goes boom. FOSS is AMAZING for govt contractors, they can bill $250m building something using FOSS that's available as a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) product. They put a lot of work into ensuring the govt requirements are rigid enough that the COTS alternative is deemed unacceptable during the AoA process.