Personal outreach/Sample Letter

Hello $REPRESENTATIVE_NAME

I am writing to you today to express my support for the use the GNU+Linux and free software (aka open source). As a free software user, I can say from personal experience that it is just as capable, if not more, than proprietary software. As a taxpayer, I am deeply concerned with what kind of software my tax money supports. Free software guarantees freedoms and can be said to be owned by the general public while proprietary software is controlled by the "owner" of the software, which is not the end user.

I ask the following of you:

• Support Free and Open Source software in schools by talking with your fellow representatives and school officials to mandate the adoption GNU/Linux to help reduce education budgets while improving school technology for administration, students, and teachers.
• Work to adopt GNU/Linux on all government computers by mandate.
• Understand the basic technical, financial, and moral reasons to support and use Free and Open Source Software.

Thank you for your time and consideration. What is your current stance on proprietary versus free and open source software?

Thank you,

$NAME