America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilisation in between. - Oscar Wilde
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Novell and Microsoft go to court over Wordperfect
SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Novell has its sights on Microsoft in a legal showdown over the Wordperfect word processing and Quattro Pro spreadsheet applications.
The jury in the Novell v. Microsoft trial was selected yesterday, in what is expected to be the last outing for Microsoft in its 15-year battle over antitrust allegations. The US District Court for Utah is scheduled to hear opening arguments today, with Novell alleging Microsoft abused its monopoly on operating systems to harm Novell's business that included the popular Wordperfect and Quattro Pro applications.
One of Novell's exhibits appears to show then Microsoft CEO Bill Gates saying to his subordinates that the firm should make it harder for the likes of Lotus and Novell to compete with its own Microsoft Office suite. The email sent by Gates on 3 October 1994 stated, "We [Microsoft] should wait until we have a way to do a high level of integration that will be harder for [the] likes of Notes, WordPerfect to achieve, and which will give Office a real advantage."
Later Gates denied his email formed the basis of any anti-competitive behaviour, stating in a March 2009 deposition, "The decision I was making in this memo is about: Is this an important thing? And I'm saying it's not." Novell on the other hand has a different view, stating in its complaint, "He [Gates] candidly admitted that Microsoft's own products could not compete without the benefit of these anti-competitive acts."
Novell's Wordperfect was the incumbent word processing application in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The court selected a 12 member jury panel yesterday for what is expected to be a long trial.
In other action, Microsoft is seeking to have its crushing defeat in the US v. Microsoft antitrust trial ignored and relitigate some or all of more than 350 findings of fact and 72 conclusions of law decided in that case and upheld on appeal, all the way up to the US Supreme Court. µ
Tags: Microsoft
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Anyone who used a word processor or spreadsheet in the early 90s probably remembers having the functionality break when a newer version of the Micr0$uck$ LoseDoze Operating System (O/S) was released. It took many months of effort for the software vendors to fix all of the things that got broken when M$ changed things.
It was pretty common knowledge that these changes were done to screw these software companies who competed with M$, but certainly as with many other events history will attempt to be re-written to cover up the past.
The only way ol' slick Willy Gates would ever admit to anti-competitive behavior would be if shown a memo that stated, "Micr0$uck$ must break the law to achieve its goals." Anything less can be "interpreted" to mean something completely different than originally intended, thanks the lawyers.