Probably because of

> I couldn’t find a local msp who’d do desktop Linux support the same way we were getting.

You could find competent third-party GWorkspace support, plus unless you fully moved to ChromeOS, you will still support Windows in one way or another (although students usually gets Chromebooks, try moving a teacher using a 15-year old application that still works on latest versions of Windows). RHEL is geared towards enterprise but not education sectors, and I'm not aware of a commercial support which specialty is in the education sector.

Tech changed. Most of the google suite exists within the browser. While the teachers had to learn new tools, they didn’t have to learn a new OS. Even if the OS learning was trivial, it could still make for a hard transition. It was foreign. It was scary.

Google is Google. They’ve been using it for years. They’re ok with the browser. Less emotional load.

I think you're on to something. Though using a browser on any OS has been pretty similar for a few decades, the "scary" thing must be a larger factor than I've considered before.

Because Google products are good and work exactly the same on any kind of computer or phone (i.e. no differences between distros or hardware)

Because Google manages most of the complexity.

They do manage a lot of things, but not the two things OP mentioned and I copied.

What happened is that Google has enough money to take the purchasing people out for drinks once a year.

That’s not how IT government procurement works. We go through training specifically aimed at what we can and can’t do when trying to get government contracts. I don’t work for Google, I work at another BigTech company that sells consulting services to government.

I'm glad youre an honest person, but I've seen the procurement process of my government happen in real time. It's not a diligent process. The requirements are often written based off previous winning project agreements, in a way that nearly guarantees certain companies always win. Sometimes this is due to the incompetence of the gov, but usually it's because the people writing the specs have to work with the people that win so they choose the ones that they like the best. What's a good way to make someone like you without a bribe? Invite them out.

It's a job you can get. Sometimes it's called Relationship Manager.

There are also policies and procedures around preventing those types of conflicts of interests.

I’ve been a dev manager working with contracting companies in the private sector, I know how they work. I got free box seats to go to pro baseball and basketball games, got invited to lunch by the attractive sales person , etc. Could we get away with that in the public sector without a lot of red tape, lawyers, and public disclosures? Heck no.

I mean, I hear yah, and again I'm glad you don't do that. It's real nice to talk with someone with ethics like that. But I have seen it happen. You can google it if you want. It happens.

Yes, and you saw the shit show it caused when the contract had to be rebid. There is a reason everyone is more careful these days. I can only speak about the process the big cloud providers go through from first hand experience.