Microsoft chairman and chief software architect Bill Gates
Wednesday ended his three days in the witness stand with a warning
that the remedies sought by the nonsettling states will take away
Microsoft's incentives to innovate and send his company's
multibillion-dollar research and development engine "into a 10-year
period of hibernation".
Gates, when questioned by Microsoft attorney Daniel Webb, said the
proposed remedies would have "some very dramatic effects on
Microsoft" and other companies.
He criticised the remedy for its ambiguities and for a "breadth of
restrictions" so broad that it would lead the company to pull
Windows from the market.
The states' attorney, Steven Kuney, turned attention back to the
1998-99 antitrust trial; Microsoft's impact on Netscape
Communication Corp.'s Navigator.
In focusing on the states' remedy plan to require Microsoft to make
its Internet Explorer Web browser open source, Kuney went through
the violations cited by the court of appeals which, he claimed,
"contributed significantly" to Explorer's dominant market position
"at Navigator's expense".
Gates said that while he accepted what the court of appeals found,
other key factors had contributed to Netscape's decline.
Kuney asked whether Microsoft could engineer Windows to still
perform all of its functions except for playing media if the
company removed the Windows Media Player from the operating system.
Gates answered no, saying that the company would have to recreate
the Windows Media Player and include it in the operating system,
which would violate the states' remedy.
Kuney then asked Gates if Microsoft could create a version of
Windows without the Windows Media Player that displayed a message
every time Media Player functions were invoked, telling the user
that the feature was not included in their version of the operating
system.
Gates replied that this was possible, but that every time that
message popped up, it would degrade the system's performance and
violate the states' remedy.
Kuney moved on to the topic of Windows XP Embedded, a version of
the operating system designed for use in devices such as cash
registers and medical implements. He attempted to show that
Microsoft has already built a version of Windows that can use some,
all, or none of its middleware.
Through his questioning, Kuney showed that Windows XP Embedded is
designed to let users select which middleware elements they want
included in the operating system. For example, he showed a
screenshot describing Windows XP Embedded with six versions of
Internet Explorer from which to choose.
Users of the embedded operating system choose which components they
want, and other components required to make the users' options
function are automatically installed, Gates said.
Kuney asked if a user could create a version of Windows XP Embedded
for the PC that ran all the same applications as Windows XP. No,
answered Gates, because the embedded version doesn't include an
installer, so no new software could be put on the PC running
Windows XP Embedded. In addition, Microsoft's licensing of Windows
XP Embedded doesn't allow for distribution of the operating system
running on a PC, Gates said.
Moving to the topic of Windows' fragmentation - another potential
result of the states' remedies, according to Gates - Kuney asked
whether the operating system is already fragmented because
Microsoft updated the desktop in Windows XP, making it different
from earlier versions. He also asked if users have to go through a
learning period every time they update Windows.
Yes, said Gates, "but you don't have to go take a course." Gates
added that these were only changes in the user interface, not in
the platform software developers deal with.
The states' lawyer asked Gates to turn his attention to the states'
provision regarding porting the Office suite.
"It's called porting, but it's giving away," Gates said, drawing
laughter from the courtroom.
Kuney asked why Gates claimed the states' provision forcing it to
continue developing Office for the Macintosh would be burdensome,
since it is a product the company already updates.
The provision calls for Microsoft to release the same number of
Office versions for the Mac as it does for Windows, and with
consistent features, which is not something the company does now,
Gates said.
"Being required over a period of 10 years to do that work
regardless of [the Macintosh market] with things we don't do today,
we find that a negative requirement," he said.