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To: Daniel Schuh who wrote (21088)	10/14/1998 3:03:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24154

Microsoft Retort Reinterprets Gates E-Mail nytimes.com It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. Nobody said that rewriting history was easy. Note that Paul "air supply" Maritz was at the top of the witness list. In its latest pretrial salvo, the Microsoft Corporation yesterday issued a 40-page document that attempts to refute the Government's antitrust case -- a case that Microsoft asserts is based on "a handful of snippets" quoted "misleadingly" from among the 3.3 million pages of e-mail and memos the company handed over to the Justice Department. All that colorful language. So misleading, so unlike the Microsoft we all know and love. In the paper, titled "Setting the Record Straight," Microsoft replies partly with some snippets of its own in the form of previously unreleased e-mail concerning the company's dealings with Intuit Inc. and America Online Inc. In both cases, Microsoft portrays itself as an upstart underdog in the market for software used to browse the Internet's World Wide Web rather than as a predator intent on defending and extending its monopoly, as the Government has painted it. The company notes that until recently, its rival Netscape Communications Corporation was the dominant maker of browser software for navigating the World Wide Web. And nobody used Windows. Microsoft was, indeed, an upstart on AOL's turf. So, it just had to "put a bullet through MSN's head", in Bill's own words. He didn't make the list, though, somebody else is going to have to try and clear up that "colorful language". The notion that Gates, the nation's wealthiest person and the head of the company that dominates the personal computer software industry, would be the supplicant in any business meeting leaves Microsoft's critics unconvinced. Andy Grove caved just like that, but that was an aberration! Andy Grove's a wimp! Any real man would have Bill twisted around his fingers like a pretzel! "You would expect Microsoft to take positions that at least pass the laugh test," said Kevin Arquit, a partner at Rogers and Wells, who is a consultant to Sun Microsystems Inc. a Microsoft rival. "This paper suggests that Microsoft is worried about the evidence that is going to come out in the trial." Pass the laugh test? What fun would that be? Following antitrust without Microsoft providing the laughs would be like, well, following antitrust. And we all know how scintillating that subject is, without Bill to make it entertaining. It'd be like arguing with a bunch of Objectivists. The trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 19 in United States Federal District Court in Washington. William Harris, the president of Intuit, has been named as a witness for the Justice Department and 20 states suing Microsoft. And a good time will be had by all. I ought to learn to leave the NYT stories stand on their own, they got good coverage and a healthy sense of irony. Hard to change after all this time, though. Cheers, Dan.