The Register has all sorts of content and analysis of the current events at the Micro$oft trial, particularly Chairman Bill's words from the stand, including a few scathing comments here.

I hope that if I should ever turn to a life of crime and am eventually prosecuted for my wrongdoing and found guilty, I'll be allowed to dictate my punishment to the federal government, just like Microsoft. I hope as well that I'll be permitted to reject state-imposed punishments based on some irrelevant set of purely speculative consequences.

Not the most balanced and dispassionate of analyses, but an entertaining dissection of the Gates' testimony.

Other articles in the Reg include an analysis of how Judge Kollar-Kotelly is treating Gates (and perhaps why), as well as the M$ pitch that punishing it too hard will trigger software Armageddon.

But actually, the fact that Microsoft has to put teams of coders on figuring out what's what is more telling. In many cases the company really does not know, because development has proceeded haphazardly with no clear records, no clear central control of who's doing what, and inadequate/incorrect documentation. Yesterday Bill appears to have been inadvertently confirming to us that he is a manufacturer of inadequately architected bloat, and that this is the way the greatest software company in the world proposes to continue to do business.

There's also an even deeper analysis, paragraph by painful paragraph, of Gates' written testimony.

In fact Gates inadvertently, and surely unconsciously, suggests a picture of thriving innovation in a post-settlement Windows world. One where OEMs, spurred by the freedom to differentiate their OS offerings, add their own innovations, the winners and losers determined by the Darwinian competition that free markets are supposed to stage.
Of course Bill doesn't quite see it like that.

Come on, guys, don't beat around the bush. Let us know what you really think ...

The popular press painted Gates' testimony as quite successful. Reading the Reg puts it all in perspective.

Filed under :: Hi-Tech :: Politics & Law
Link · Print · Edit · TR/G

Bring on the software rennassaince - we are more than ready for it...

Let the black death take microsoft... any worthy product they currently have will rise from the ashes...

Agreed.

M$ has, through fair means and foul, provided some useful services to the PC ecosphere. I count my blessings every day I install a program that I don't need to install a bunch of unique printer drivers for.

Its continued aggrandizement of the PC ecosphere, though, defining standards not through technical ability or consensus or even looking in the damned book of standards but instead by simply planting a flag and calling it the standard through sheer market weight, remains a constant irritation to me. Hence my willingness to lambaste them at every turn.

I would personally like to see that petulant little kid, Gates, leave the sandbox and take his marbles home.

Now, where did I put my Milky Way?

Being a geek from way back, I have a certain measure of sympathy for Mr. Gates. He probably got persecuted in school, too.

I'm just terrified that he's an object lesson of how I'd be if I ever became a multi-gazillionaire.