>Free Software will never be palatable to the mainstream, because the mainstream rejects socialist ideas.
Then don't frame it as a socialist idea. There's absolutely nothing about Free Software that has a hard requirement on socialist ideology.
Frame it as pragmatism: Governments/schools/etc should run free software because it's more cost-effective and thus a more fiscally-responsible use of taxpayer monies.
Frame it as democratic: Why should a bunch of unelected CEOs have the right to dictate what you, a citizen of $this_great_nation, do with your devices?
Frame it as nationalism: How can American kids grow up to be world-leading innovators if they can't hack their devices? We're losing to Russia and China in the hacking gap!
Frame it as free speech or something: Why does the government get to decide what I do with my devices? My ipad my choice.
Surveillance Capitalism is a well established term that means exactly what it sounds like - capitalism based upon surveillance. This is exactly the business model that Facebook and Google operate upon, and exactly what Sidewalk Labs was attempting. They claim to be benevolent saviours but really they're just there to watch everyone and sell the data to advertisers, governments, and Palantir-alikes.
> We are going back to the desktop app era, is what I feel.
Can't wait, to be honest. This era of everything as a service is great for developer convenience but is incredibly user-hostile in that it enables and encourages surveillance capitalism and the erosion of privacy.
Then don't frame it as a socialist idea. There's absolutely nothing about Free Software that has a hard requirement on socialist ideology.
Frame it as pragmatism: Governments/schools/etc should run free software because it's more cost-effective and thus a more fiscally-responsible use of taxpayer monies.
Frame it as democratic: Why should a bunch of unelected CEOs have the right to dictate what you, a citizen of $this_great_nation, do with your devices?
Frame it as nationalism: How can American kids grow up to be world-leading innovators if they can't hack their devices? We're losing to Russia and China in the hacking gap!
Frame it as free speech or something: Why does the government get to decide what I do with my devices? My ipad my choice.