Since the Microsoft trial has lately, to be honest, been frustrating to follow and report on, we have here a brief summary of the events since we last reported to you.
Microsoft's last attempts to limit the government's evidence died when Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson said that he will not make any rulings about evidence until the trial is underway. After that ruling, he agreed with the latest requests from both sides and delayed the case until October 19, next Monday.
At the same time, AOL Chairman Steve Case told reporters that his company decided to go with IE because Microsoft gave AOL's software a choicey position on the Windows 95 desktop. At a speech later in the week Case also stated that he sees no reason for computer companies to be exempt from the same antitrust laws as other firms.
Meanwhile, Judge Jackson ruled that Oracle has to make available "all agreements" it entered into with Apple, IBM, Novell, Netscape, Sun, HP, and Compaq regarding Unix marketing, software bundling and Java. Oracle lawyers argued correctly that this was just another attempt to muddy the waters and further confuse the trial.
And finally the news came out of a government investigation into possible evidence tampering by The Behemoth. According to sources, the Justice Department is checking for evidence that Ms deleted e-mail evidence of Java tampering. Sources say there are investigations into evidence tampering in the Caldera/Microsoft case as well.

Confirming rumors that have circled since June, Microsoft has announced plans to ship a Windows 98 Service Pack early next year. The glorified bug patch is supposed to correct incompatability with older computers and peripherals, but usually it takes Microsoft two or more of these things to correct the majority of those type problems. The pack is also expected to include patches for IE/Outlook Express security holes and the Windows date rollover bug discussed here several months ago. Windows 98 SP1 will reach beta testers sometime later this month.

In a rarely seen agressive move, Netscape's latest product overrides Internet Explorer. "Windows Friendly" Netscape Communicator 4.5 has an option making it Windows' default browser, replacing IE for many Windows functions. The company also rolled out "Netscape Tuneup for IE," an ActiveX control giving IE some of the same Netcenter-based features Communicator has. This is likely in response to a recent study showing that Netscape's consumer marketshare has finally slipped below 50 percent, primarily due to Internet Explorer and AOL's branded version of IE.

Going back on statements recently made by several of its top executives, Microsoft again confirmed last week that it will not be making NT source code more available to the public. In a speech at the Microsoft Business Applications Conference, Ms VP Steve Ballmer implied that Microsoft would be publishing more NT source but wouldn't elaborate. Following his speech, NT managers and company representatives rushed to condradict his statements, explaining that only driver code and interfaces would be released anytime in the near future. This, according to the company, prevents NT from becoming "fragmented and scattered" like certain other OSes they wouldn't name..

At the Professional Developers Conference in Denver planned for later this month, Microsoft is expected to annouce a new Windows CE version of the Access database. SQL Database 7 is also expected at that time. Components of SQL 7 will likely be positioned to replace the buggy Access Jet interface, and may eventually replace Access all together. This would put Microsoft at three database products instead of the current four (Access, Access CE, SQL & FoxPro). And judging by the current lack of intrest in FoxPro, the company could very well be down to two before the year's end.

Using a new Arizona law, Microsoft brought lawsuits against three companies for pirating software. The new law makes copying more than $1000 of software a felony in Arizona, punishable by triple-loss monetary judgements. The companies charged refused to make any statements.
Even though MSNBC TV carried the US President's videotaped testimony for four unedited hours, more than a minute of it was edited from the MSNBC web site. A spokesperson later explained that this move was to protect children, who apparently have more access to the internet than to television (likely due to internet-integrated Windows). Despite their easier access, transcripts of the testimony were unedited.
According to a new study by Media Metrix, PC users in the United States used their computers for some 1.7 billion hours last March. The study also shows over 1 billion of the hours were spent using Microsoft products. No data yet on time spent rebooting after Microsoft product crashes.

_{Justice v Microsoft: Case of the Missing PC Makers
CE upgrade causes confusion
Low End Feels The Weight Of Windows
Sun Lawsuit Heats Up
Microsoft plugs NT hole
The Little OS That Could
Office 97's browser discrimination}