Just another example of the cr*p we have to put up with from MSFT!
dailynews.yahoo.com
Microsoft Engineers Discussed Windows Bug - WSJ
NEW YORK (Reuters) - In 1991, when a competitor threatened to break Microsoft Corp. (MSFT - news)'s lock on desktop
software, Microsoft engineers discussed an unusual counterattack: a software bug to be hidden inside an early version of
Microsoft Windows, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
In a Sept. 30, 1991, message about the plan that referred to members of his team in the shorthand of electronic mail, David
Cole, head of Windows development, told another executive that ''aaronr had some pretty wild ideas after three or so beers --
earleh has some too.'' If the bug detected a rival's program, he further wrote, it would ''put competitors on a treadmill'' and
''should surely crash at some point shortly later.''
Cole also warned that the existence of the bug had to be kept secret, the Journal reported.
Cole's e-mail came in response to a challenge from what Microsoft saw as a clone of its DOS operating-system software. Now
the e-mail is at the center of a private antitrust suit brought two years ago in federal court here by tiny Caldera Inc. , of Orem,
Utah, with the backing of Ray Noorda, the 72-year- old former chairman of Novell Inc. (NOVL - news), of Provo, Utah. The
suit charges that Microsoft intended ''to destroy competition in the software industry.''
The e-mail is among previously secret internal documents subpoenaed by the U.S. government in a 1995 antitrust suit against
Microsoft that was settled; these documents are also at the center of the Caldera suit and could be introduced as evidence in
the government's current antitrust suit against Microsoft, which is scheduled to go to trial next month. (In pursuing its suit against
Microsoft, the U.S. government has subpoenaed documents from Intel Corp. (INTC - news))
Microsoft concedes the authenticity of Mr. Cole's e-mail, but its lawyers deny Caldera's antitrust allegation and have asked that
the lawsuit be dismissed, The Wall Street Journal reported.
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