Open Source Policy for all Government Organizations: Reg

The Indian Government had announced an open source policy applicable to all Government organizations under the Central Governments and those State Governments. So, I decided to send in an e-mail to my school's CS HOD. Here's what I sent in. I suggest you do something similar; to promote FOSS(Open Source Software) (which is much needed, for freedom from proprietary software).

Respected Sir,

I just came across the new policy announced by the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY) on the Adoption of Open Source Software, regarding the usage of Open Source Software in all Government Organizations under the Central and State Governments.

The policy states that (quoting herein, a part of, Section 3, Policy Statement):

"Government of India shall endeavour to adopt Open Source Software in all e-Governance systems implemented by various Government organizations, as a preferred option in comparison to Closed Source Software (CSS)."

In order for compliance, (quoting herein, a part of, Section 6, How to Comply): "All Government Organizations, while implementing e-Governance applications and systems must include a specific requirement in Request for Proposal (RFP) for all suppliers to consider OSS along with CSS while responding. Suppliers shall provide justification for exclusion of OSS in their response, as the case may be."

This policy is mandatory (Section 4, Nature of Compliance), and is applicable to all Government Organizations under the Central and State Governments (Section 5, Applicability), as said before.

The official document (linked herein, policy_on_adoption_of_oss.pdf), may be found the Policies/Guidelines Page at DeitY.

I hope you'd take necessary steps for compliance with the new policy and try to promote and instill the usage of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) Software in your school; the primary reason being: The earlier students are 'exposed' to FOSS, the quicker they 'grasp' it; while the another fairly evident one being: 'cost optimization' (consider Windows 7 Professional (32-bit) priced at ~$95 (per license); while the plethora of Unix distributions that are available for free).

For 'official' work, certain exceptions might be made, like usage of Microsoft's Office Suite (which is priced at ~$50; ignoring 'student' concessions), instead of Open Office or Libre Office (which might be slightly less user-friendly, and provide lesser compatibility (in some cases) or functionality).

Thanks and regards,

thewisenerd.