Not once has that ever stopped an RFP from being put out or a contract from being awarded.

Lots of RFPs are awarded to companies with existing commercial technology, or to solution providers who bid on a plan to integrate open-source software and maybe add a little flavor.

Hopefully this is the first time. Honestly the government needs to make more open decisions like this (hard because of tracking budgets and how contracts are awarded and defined as complete). A bit more flexibility and open decisions with easy input from their users would do our country a HUGE service and save a metric fuck ton of money.

Even if there was a FLOSS option that checked every box on features, there would still need be an RFP for implementation. You can't create and manage the infrastructure of a system at that scale without spending enough money to require an RFP.

Always fun to get downvoted for voicing a statement of fact: an RFP is required, if I remember correctly, for any purchase in excess of $25,000. It's not a high bar, and would easily be surpassed by having to pay a contractor to implement and integrate even the simplest of tools if it's to be used across the entire DoD Enterprise.