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Bill Gates Takes the Stand In WordPerfect Trial

Posted by Soulskill on from the apparently-some-people-still-care-about-wordperfect dept.

Hugh Pickens writes "Remember WorldPerfect? Bill Gates took the witness stand to defend his company against a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit that claims Microsoft duped Novell into thinking he would include WordPerfect in the new Windows system, then backed out because he feared it was too good. Gates testified Monday that Microsoft was racing to put out Windows 95 when he dropped technical features that would no longer support the rival's word processor. He said that in making the decision about the code, he was concerned not about Novell but about one element of the program that could have caused computers to crash. That code, technically known as 'name space extensions,' had to do with the display of folders and files. Novell attorney Jeff Johnson concedes that Microsoft was under no legal obligation to provide advance access to Windows 95 so Novell could prepare a compatible version but contends that Microsoft enticed Novell to work on a version, only to withdraw support months before Windows 95 hit the market. 'We got stabbed in the back.'"

8 of 472 comments (clear)

  1. Remember WordPerfect? ha! by thomasdz · · Score: 4, Funny

    Remember WordPerfect? Hell, I'm still using it. I still have an old Toshiba laptop that runs FreeDos and WordPerfect v5.1

    Now, get off my lawn you whippersnappers while me and Bill Gates reminisce about the old days

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  2. Novell is killing babies now? by turkeyfeathers · · Score: 5, Funny

    Bill Gates is spending his time and money these days looking for a cure for malaria and other diseases. Taking time away from that to testify in this case = more dead babies. Novell is killing babies.

  3. Re:Remember WordPerfect? ha! by Howitzer86 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is "reminisce" a euphemism for punch in the face?

  4. Re:Groklaw has a pretty good article. by Mojo66 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wasn't there a Windows95 bug that would 100% crash the OS after 46 days? And it took years to find this bug because usually the OS would crash much much earlier...

  5. Re:Wordperfect did one thing every program should by Jay+L · · Score: 4, Funny

    No.. all programs and web sites do this.

    It's called a hex editor.

    Now, that may be too complicated for 90% of the techies, but it's not true for the rest of us, and you're slowing us down with the simpleton demands for ASCII-editable interfaces.

  6. The horses are gone by CaroKann · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wordperfect? Windows 95? What decade are we talking about here? Not only have the horses left the barn, they have established a healthy feral population.

  7. Re:Groklaw has a pretty good article. by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 3, Funny

    Hey! That's not fair.

    Ted Bundy was a violent psychopath and Charles Manson had a hippie cult of personality around him.

    Wait, never mind. Continue.

    (Although I don't think Ted Bundy threw chairs.)

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  8. Re:Groklaw has a pretty good article. by Hognoxious · · Score: 4, Funny

    If Steve Jobs showed up at Android developers and offered to work with them, I think they would be suspicious.

    Suspicious? I'd be terrified.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."