Word: microsoft
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...with a frameable photo-op, he pushed his way to one end of the green felt-covered witness table and coolly greeted Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy, chief of the Gates bashers. The committee staff--hoping for as many fireworks as possible--placed McNealy directly to Gates' left, next to Microsoft's other archrival, the aggrieved Jim Barksdale of Netscape Communications Corp...
...matter how they baited him, Gates held his famous temper and stuck to his message: Microsoft is not a monopoly; anyone can upend the topsy-turvy software industry with a cool new idea. As he put it later, "At the end of the day there's only one question: Are we allowed to innovate? We'll make sure that this boils down to that one question...
...surprisingly, the Senators had a few questions of their own. They wanted to know about Microsoft's licensing agreements with computer makers that effectively banished Netscape from the desktop. They wanted to hear why Microsoft decided to make its Internet browser inseparable from its operating system, Windows 95. And they wanted to know how the company set the price for the browser at zero. "I think there is a single, basic question underlying our inquiry," said chairman Hatch. "Is there a danger that monopoly power is--or could be--used to stifle innovation in the U.S. software industry today...
...Justice Department clearly believes there is. Federal trust busters--whose hand had to be strengthened this week-- say Windows 95, installed on more than 85% of the world's desktop computers, is by definition a monopoly. Nothing illegal about that. The problem, they say, is that Microsoft has been using its control of the desktop to pry its way into new markets. Microsoft has "done almost everything they can think of to put us out of business," Barksdale told the Senators. He should know: Netscape's browser was unrivaled after its launch in 1994. But pressured by Microsoft, which...
Perhaps Hatch felt slighted that he didn't get any of the brownies and cookies Microsoft sent to another Senator after the hearing. No matter. It's unlikely Gates is hankering to return. The 42-year-old Harvard dropout may be the world's smartest and richest businessman, but as he learned last week, that and $1.60 get you a cup of chowder in the Rayburn cafeteria...