This is openness in the purest sense of the word. Only if you move an application from one Windows NT platform to another. Porting an application from Windows NT to a UNIX system or vice versa is not easy because the set of APIs used on one system are not necessarily supported on the other system. The user can buy computing platforms and applications from any supplier who provides Windows NT and applications that fit the WOSA architecture, all owned by one vendor. Open systems is an attempt to break this control by one vendor.
Users are free to buy proprietary solutions controlled by one supplier.
But if this is what the user intends to procure, then the RFP should state clearly that all solutions will be considered, open or proprietary. It is a mistake to let this award stand because of the precedence it sets. Mount a concerted effort to overthrow this award. From a technical point of view, the U.S. Government's ruling doesn't have a leg to stand on. This will encourage users to write RFP's that result in the procurement of open systems solutions.