re: Do you doubt that?
Yes, I doubt that, for 2 reasons.
First, I think the OEMs were more afraid of DOJ retaliation - people are a lot more sensitive to the government digging in their stuff than any possible retaliation from MSFT. In that context, the "fear of Microsoft" would have been a good excuse, when the real reason is that the OEMs or whoever just didn't want to get involved or tie up any executive time in a witch hunt, but didn't want the DOJ on their backs either.
Second, there is nothing that a big company could do to keep individual executives from testifying. This is a DOJ investigation, for god's sake, they can subpoena anyone they want and grill them for hours, and they did so. If there was any thread they had picked up, they would have been all over it.
So I think that was pure PR from the DOJ with no basis in fact.
While I don't necessarily trust the MSFT testimony - it was "the gang who couldn't shoot straight", These guys are obviously techies not politicians or lawyers - I trust the government even less. My distrust of politicians runs deep and is based on lots of personal experience. From the local councilman saying "that's a fine handsome boy you have there Mrs. Cavindash" to Slick Willy saying "I did not have sex with that woman", my first assumption about anything a government employee says is that it's probably not true. |
