Ah yes, the efficiency of the free market. Where companies with deep pockets get kids hooked on their product early so they can abuse them for the rest of their lives.

In these cases I think administrative oversight of broad and long term benefits to society is important, rather than the more narrow decision of "this choice will benefit next year's budget". Early offers by Microsoft were in a way a trap that kept schools and students paying for decades.

I suppose I specifically mean free-market thinking applied to government services. This would be a symptom of neoliberalism. [1] Allowing discounts from private corporations to influence government policy, instead of looking at what would be best from a broader perspective.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

That purchased operating systems created by the free market.

Eh, I mean, I grew up with Macs at home and school and have definitely seen the light of free/libre software. That said, it took a long time, and it was also largely because I have always been quite conscious of privacy (and to a lesser degree, security). It is still indeed an uphill battle for all the "I have nothing to hide" average people who just act like you're paranoid for even bringing up the subject of privacy.

>tryin'a