The Microsoft-Linux Story As Told in the Comes Exhibits

“As we are working on the data in the Comes v. Microsoft
exhibits, describing the contents or transcribing each so as to
make them keyword searchable, we are coming across some interesting
materials regarding Microsoft’s view of Linux. As far back as 1999,
Bill Gates was asking his executives if there was a way to make
things harder for Linux. For example, here’s Comes Exhibit
3020:

“From: Bill Gates
Sent: Sunday, January 24, 1999 8:41 AM
To: Jeff Westorinon; Ben Fathi
Cc: Carl Stork; Nathan Myhrvold; Eric Rudder
Subject: ACPI extensions

“One thing I find myself wondering about is whether we shouldn’t
try and make the “ACPI” extensions somehow Windows specific.

“It seems unfortunate if we do this work and get our partners to
do the work and the result is that Linux works great without having
to do the work.

“Maybe there is no way to avoid this problem but it does bother
me.

“Maybe we could define the APIs so that they work well with NT
and not the others even if they are open.

“Or maybe we could patent something related to this.”

Complete
Story