To
- XXX
Sub – Stipulating proprietary software platforms in your tender XXX
Dear Sir/Madam,
We notice from your tender document (reference XXX), that you have specified that the XXX platform should be used.
Various policy documents of the government have expressed support and preference for Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). These include
Government of India's draft policy on Open standards. It also requires software applications implemented by the Government to confirm to open standards (www.mit.gov.in/download/Policyonopensandards.pdf)
National Policy on ICTs in school education (http://education.nic.in/secedu/ict.pdf)
Goverment of India's Web site policy http://web.guidelines.gov.in/
IT policy of state governments such as the Governments of Assam (http://assamgovt.nic.in/pdf/ITPOLICY-2009-Final-Gazette-Style.pdf) and Kerala (http://technopark.org/downloads/ITPolicy-2007.pdf)
Several State Governments have actively promoted adoption of FOSS including Kerala, Assam, Gujarat, Karnataka, Orissa and so on. Several government agencies such as the National Knowledge Commission and the Planning Commission of India, have expressed strong support for FOSS. A study by the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, concluded that over 20,000 crore rupees can be saved if Indian institutions opt for FOSS (http://www.iimb.ernet.in/~rahulde/) . Pdf File (http://www.iimb.ernet.in/~rahulde/RD_FOSSRep2009.pdf)
FOSS is available free of cost and is freely shareable without needing to make any payment of license fee to any vendor. It is being used by millions of people all over the world for all kinds of purposes, from office applications to high performance servers. FOSS provides four freedoms,namely, the freedom to
- Use on any number of machines for any purpose
- Share it with others,
- Study how the software works and modify it for one's purposes, and
- Redistribute the modified software.
However, proprietary software does not provide any of these freedoms, while imposing cost and other limitations on users. Governments specially need to adopt and promote FOSS since it empowers people, prevents vendor lock-in, makes the software implementation transparent and saves cost. Also FOSS is in the nature of a public good like common water sources, or grasslands of forests and hence needs the active support of governments.
Hence we request that you remove any stipulation of proprietary software products in your tender and instead encourage vendors to use FOSS.
Looking forward to your response. Do let us know if you need any clarifications
- Thanking you, XXX on behalf of FOSSCOMM (Alliance of the FOSS Community of India)