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At the conference many IT heads were unhappy that millions of pounds spent on software licensing each year were piped direct across the Atlantic to Silicon Valley or Redmond.

Martin Dekkers, Principal, Cynaptic Information Industries, said: 'When you look at Open Source software for the public sector, it's such a good fit on so many levels.

'Open Source has the ability to really stimulate the local economy. The money you spend in implementation stays in the area. So the drivers to move to Open Source match well with what a local government is supposed to stand for.'

Tim Fletcher, Technical Advisor, Manchester LEA, said that local government was spending at least £1mn on software licensing alone on education at Manchester, but Open Source is changing that. 'The money saved on licence fees, we spend on technicians in the local area,' he said.

Seeding

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a local skill set in not just important for the public sector, but also for small businesses. While they may be happy with Open Source software itself, they don't want 24-hour support over the telephone, but rather a number to call that means someone will be round to fix their problem within 23 minutes.

Nevertheless, local government remains very much a Microsoft fiefdom. Eddie Bleasdale, Director at netproject had anecdotal evidence that local government prefers not to even talk about possible moves to Open Source as 'you know who' will be straight on the phone ready to negotiate.

And indeed representatives from Nottingham City council, who were due to appear at the conference to talk about its Open Source plans, declined from attending for just that reason.

Of course, it's not surprising that Microsoft should want to hold onto its customers by being flexible.

Nick McGrath, Head of Platform Strategy at Microsoft UK, described a recent nine-year deal with the NHS as an 'incredibly competitive and highly negotiated agreement with the Office of Government Commerce.'

Microsoft may be keen on stem any drop in its market share, but the public sector isn't yet chock full of IT heads desperate to escape Microsoft's grip.

One delegate told us that the online services for the Wales' museums and galleries still used NT4 machines, and that work wasn't uploaded across the Internet, but sent on floppy disks to Cardiff.