I explained to finance why we had to purchase licenses for for a UI library. To justify the costs, they asked what the alternative was. I told them we don't have the talent or resources to develop our own UI library... But I offered up free open source alternatives.

Unfortunately the FOSS stuff never gets approved by IT due to vulnerability / threats.

Yeah, if a stereotypical construction union rep feels judged by the FOSS world why would they try.

My local bike coop apparently used to run mint on their computer, but when the person who set it up left town it was too much for the bike nerds who weren’t mad engineers (this person also built an electrolysis tub, that had to be gotten rid of when they left Idk if they were actually an engineer by profession, but my dumb engineer ass keeps hearing they did shit I want to do). They’d go back if it was the same, but windows just works for them and linux needed someone to make it work.

There's definitely a gatekeeping issue, but free software doesn't automatically mean 'force people to use Linux', there's stuff like Firefox, Libreoffice, Nextcloud, etc.

It's things like councils working together on common software platforms instead of going with commercial vendors, supported by local companies instead of shoveling billions to Google and Microsoft that gets sent overseas immediately. It's federal governments hiring developers directly to work on software instead of using commercial vendors.

Tech used to be (and still is) obscured by heavy gatekeeping.

Dredged up an old memory, a "Unix Koan" I read in my teens:

Master Foo and the MCSE

Once, a famous Windows system administrator came to Master Foo and asked him for instruction: “I have heard that you are a powerful Unix wizard. Let us trade secrets, that we may both gain thereby.”

Master Foo said: “It is good that you seek wisdom. But in the Way of Unix, there are no secrets.”

The administrator looked puzzled at this. “But it is said that you are a great Unix guru who knows all the innermost mysteries. As do I in Windows; I am an MCSE, and I have many other certifications of knowledge not common in the world. I know even the most obscure registry entries by heart. I can tell you everything about the Windows API, yes, even secrets those of Redmond have half-forgotten. What is the arcane lore that gives you your power?”

Master Foo said: “I have none. Nothing is hidden, nothing is revealed.”

Growing angry, the administrator said “Very well, if you hold no secrets, then tell me: what do I have to know to become as powerful in the Unix way as you?”

Master Foo said: “A man who mistakes secrets for knowledge is like a man who, seeking light, hugs a candle so closely that he smothers it and burns his hand.”

Upon hearing this, the administrator was enlightened.