|
Microsoft trial shifts gears
|
 |
December 14, 1998: 2:33 p.m. ET
Computer scientist says Web browser can be removed from Windows
|
NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Government lawyers Monday played a videotape of a computer scientist demonstrating how to remove Microsoft Corp.'s Web browser from Windows, which the company has long maintained is impossible without damaging the operating system.
The claim by Edward Felten, a Princeton University computer science professor, directly contradicts Microsoft 's claim that Internet Explorer is an integral part of Windows.
In a videotaped demonstration, Felten showed how Internet Explorer can be removed from Windows. Felten said his findings prove that Microsoft could have developed a "procedure to remove Internet Explorer from Windows 98."
In his written direct testimony, unsealed Friday by the Justice Department, Felten said he and his assistants were able to remove Internet Explorer from Windows 95 and Windows 98, adding that the operating system performed non-Internet functions after the IE files were removed.
"Microsoft could have produced a version of Windows 98 without Web browsing in a way that did not adversely affect the non-Web browsing features of Windows 98," Felten said.
That statement is central to the government's claim that Microsoft illegally leveraged its Windows monopoly by including Internet Explorer for free within the operating system.
The Justice Department and the 19 states that filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft claim the company integrated the products to take over the Internet browser market from Netscape Communications Corp. (NSCP).
Microsoft, however, countered in a statement that Felten merely hid some of Internet Explorer's functionality without actually removing it from Windows. The company also argued that removing the Web-browsing features from Windows doesn't prove Internet Explorer is a separate product.
Felten is the 10th of 12 government witnesses scheduled to testify. The trial began its ninth week Monday.
Separately, Microsoft officials used another alliance among its competitors as an opportunity to claim that competition is thriving in the high-tech industry, regardless of Microsoft's market share.
Microsoft spokesman Mark Murray said Monday's announcement that Sun Microsystems Inc. (SUNW) and Oracle Corp's (ORCL) agreement to use each other's technology demonstrates that Microsoft constantly has to fend off formidable competitors.
"Microsoft faces many significant competitors and changes in the high-tech industry are always going to be five steps ahead of government attempts to regulate the high-tech marketplace," Murray said.
The company has long argued that it must be free to innovate its products if it is to survive in a competitive high-tech marketplace.
Microsoft (MSFT) shares fell 3-5/16 to 130-11/16 in midday trading. 
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
