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To: Keith Hankin who wrote (21590)	11/20/1998 2:30:00 AM
From: Gerald R. Lampton	Respond to of 24154

I agree with your assessment. Their lawyers are big-firm lawyers. They will try a case to death (well, actually pre-try it to death), and Microsoft, I am sure, is a "spare no expense" kind of case. But they also are not stupid.

To: Keith Hankin who wrote (21590)	11/20/1998 2:41:00 AM
From: Daniel Schuh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 24154

Microsoft Accused of Keeping Prices High nytimes.com Keith, I have to somewhat disagree with you and Gerald on the "where is Microsoft going" line. The current conspiracy theory seems consistent enough with the whole shotgun defense. It's like the infamous Netscape meeting, first Bill said it was to tell Netscape about these cool new featues, then he forgot, then it was Andreeson's fantastical invention, then it was all a setup. Nowhere was there a coherent version of what Microsoft claims was said at the meeting. Still looks like Bill acting as his own attorney to me. But unlike Gerald, I'm not looking very deeply at this stuff. On to today's NYT story. Lacovara asked if Linux, the free Unix operating system whose core was written by a University of Helsinki student eight years ago, did not pose a potential threat to Windows because several of Microsoft's chief competitors are writing software to run on it. While Linux has several million devotees around the world, it holds a minuscule share of the operating-system market, and Warren-Boulton fairly laughed at the proposition that it threatened Microsoft. "Whatever role Linux may have, it is not expected to constrain the monopoly power of Microsoft," he said. "If you truly believe this product is going to constrain Microsoft's market share, then run, don't walk, to your broker and sell Microsoft stock short." In every other context but this one, I'm sure all the friends of Bill here would join Warren-Boulton in laughing at Linux. Xiao Yao was deriding the idea of free software here just a few days ago. Personally, I like Linux just fine. But you get into this funny post-modern economics thing, where free maybe isn't cheap enough to compete with Microsoft. How's the "free market" supposed to work there? At one point in court today, a Justice Department lawyer raised the issue of an interview given by Microsoft's chairman, William H. Gates, to The Associated Press. Gates was quoted as saying that the Justice Department's repeated showing at the trial of excerpts from his videotaped deposition last August was "more about Government P.R. than the substance of the case." During the deposition, Gates said, he was constantly fending off Government lawyers who were trying to "put words in my mouth." David Boies, the Justice Department's lead trial lawyer, said that Gates "seems to be indicating more and more that he wants to come" to testify at the trial. The Government could have called Gates as a witness but chose not to do so. Today, Boies challenged Microsoft's legal team to call Gates as a defense witness. Go ahead, Bill. Make my day. There's just one question you have to ask yourself. Do you feel lucky? Any word on Bill doing the happy feet thing at Comdex again? Cheers, Dan.