A federal judge ordered Microsoft last week to turn over some Windows 95 source code to Caldera as evidence in their case to prove the company tied MS-DOS to Windows in an effort to annihilate other versions of DOS. Caldera, which bought DR-DOS from Novell in 1996, says Microsoft made false claims about Windows' compatability with non-MS DOS, made Windows 95 incompatable with those DOSes and then tied MS-DOS to Windows 95 in an attempt to put competing companies out of business. Microsoft spkesmen said they will willing hand over the source because of strict limits the judge placed on its usage.

The Department of Justice is seeking two days to depose Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates in its antitrust suit, twice as long as the company wants to make him available. The DOJ says that Gates is scheduled to give a deposition on August 12, but they would prefer to have an additional day to question him because "Mr. Gates has personal knowledge about every aspect of this matter which cannot be obtained through other sources." Microsoft says that 8 hours should be more than enough time to get all the information needed.
The department also accused Microsoft of delaying deposition schedules from 16 other Microsoft employees like new company president Steve Ballmer. In addition to that, investigators requested source code from various versions of Windows 95 and 98. Microsoft says the request endangers "highly sensitive" trade secrets and demanded that government consultants sign a non-disclosure agreement, be prohibited from working on computer operating systems for 12 months and from working for Microsoft rivals until after the year 2000.

In a white paper circulated Wednesday by Netscape, former US judge Robert Bork said the lawsuit brought by the Justice Department and 20 states takes aim at a monopolist's attempt "to preserve its monopoly by destroying a potential rival." Inside the 70,000 word paper, Bork writes that "an analogy would be the owner of a toll bridge, which is the only bridge across a river, paying the owner of land to deny access to a site where a competitive bridge is partly built."
The former judge also called Microsoft on its "complex web of restrictive agreements" to undercut rival distributors of Internet browsers. He said Microsoft had failed to defeat Netscape in the open market and had been forced to bundle its Internet Explorer browser with its "monopoly operating system first in Windows 95 and now Windows 98 so that computer manufacturers are forced to take both in one package." Microsoft spokesmen were unavailable for comment.

In true Microsoft fashion, the annual company picnic last weekend spared no expense. The safari-theme party, held 40 minutes from downtown Seattle, featured live animals and enough food and beer to entertain the whole city. Unfortunately the whole city wasn't invited, as the picnic was limited only to Microsoft employees and their families (thousands of "temp" employees Microsoft refuses to give benefits were not invited).
Employees allowed to come were miserable because the picnic coincided with one of the hottest days in Seattle history, hitting 97 degrees before the day was done. Naturally the beer gardens and soda trough were more popular than pony rides and volleyball until someone figured out how to turn on the sprinklers. No exact cost figures were given, but sources said the party cost "about a million."

German prosecutors have dropped a case in which Microsoft accused a computer magazine of inciting illegal use of Windows 98. The company charged that German computer magazine PC Welt encouraged piracy by showing how the Windows 98 upgrade could be modified and used on computers with no earlier versions of Windows. The investigation was apparently dropped because prosecutors were unable to find any examples of piracy due to the article. PC Welt is a publication of International Data Group, the same company that publishes Macworld, Infoworld and those 'For Dummies' books.

Last week the Gates Library Foundation announced that it will donate $7.25 million of cash and software to the Louisiana library system. The Foundation, started by Bill Gates and his wife last year, has donated more than $200 million (mostly in Microsoft products) to underfunded library systems around the country. This is less than one third of a percent of Gates' total net worth (around $60 billion, depending on how the market closed).

Last week MSNBC Internet reported it has again been rated the widest-reaching general news web site on the World Wide Web by Media Metrix. CNN.com is a close second, followed by USAToday Online.
Microsoft, Nec, Alcatel and DirecTV announced last week that they each plan to acquire a 7.5 percent stake in Thomson Multimedia in a deal that will bring all the companies together to develop and promote interactive television. The deal also calls for Thompson to sell Wince-based WebTV boxes under the Thompson and RCA brand names.
Recently CDROM.com, a distributor of shareware, Linux and other software, served 417 gigabytes in a day, breaking Microsoft's 350gb record. Microsoft reached its record with 40 NT servers, while CDROM.com had one machine running FreeBSD Unix.

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Hacker Group Releases Intrusion Tool
MS preps design for handheld systems}