Thanks to Case Roole for this
report.
The June 3, 1999 US vs. Microsft trial proceedings included
testimony specifically about Linux.
Highlights are:
- Corel intends to create a GUI desktop for Linux and therefore
Linux is a threat to Microsoft’s position in the desktop market
(Fine, look forward to it, but it is not here now.) - Lotus Notes is being ported to Linux. That may be a server
application, but Lacovara attempted to make Fisher admit that this
will help Linux on the desktop. (False assumption: a port doesn’t
change the protocols, so having the server run on Linux will change
nothing wrt the clients. Of course, one can create protocols
favoring certain client OS’s, but that is not at hand.) - Dell and IBM support Linux, even on some desktop lines (This
shows there are cracks in the wall of OEMs pre-installing only
Microsoft software, not that Linux has any “usage” share.) - “Linux is beating Windows” as Mr. Cole writes to James Allchin.
Microsoft dug up some data intended to show that Linux
(client+server) is beating Windows (client+server) in retail. As
Mr. Fisher replied, Windows users buy their OS when buying a new
computer, while Linux users must buy at retail (or download, but
I’m sure not going to do that at home). It is interesting that
Microsoft is now switching from their “usage” share unit to
“market” share. A recent survey of OS’s (clients for sure) that
visited tens of thousands of websites, showed the “usage share” of
Linux to be 0.22%, while Microsoft was at 95%. Compare this with
the “Linux is beating Windows” claim that Microsoft is defending in
court today.
Mr. Boies objected against having an e-mail from Microsoft’s David
Cole to Jim Allchin admitted as evidence as it was possibly created
for the purpose of being evidence. Mr. Lacovara vehemently argued
that if the DOJ valued internal e-mails so much they should admit
this one too and Judge Jackson denied the objection. A good thing,
as we will now get the opportunity to check exhibit 2479 once it
appears at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/trial/exhibits/
Otherwise, Mr. Lacovara asked some questions about early
adopters and whether Mr. Fisher had done empirical research in this
area. Mr. Fisher – who didn’t do such research – failed to see the
relevance of these questions, and so do I.
transcript:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/trial/transcripts/jun99/06-03-pm.htm
See also:
PC World: Linux
Issue Seen as a Ploy.
“… in court Thursday, Microsoft’s latest attempt to paint Linux
as a potent desktop foe drew laughs…when Microsoft… introduced
a freshly written memorandum… The May 20 memo said that Linux is
outselling Windows 98 at several retail computer store chains.”