Microsoft broke the law, says Gateway exec

Microsoft continued to abuse its dominant position in the desktop market despite a ruling from the US courts telling it to stop violating antitrust laws, according to a former Gateway executive.

Peter Ashkin, former chief information officer of Gateway, gave evidence against Microsoft in front of the US district court which is currently hammering out details of sanctions to prevent the software giant from further breaking antitrust laws.

Ashkin told Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly that PC vendors had lacked the freedom to differentiate their products by pre-installing non-Microsoft softwate as Gates' company tried to dictate how its rivals' products were used.

He testified that Microsoft had labelled Gateway a "bad partner" after it joined forces with America Online to offer an internet access package and as a result had charged Gateway higher licensing prices for its Windows products.

The current settlement will do little, if anything, to change Microsoft's anti-competitive behaviour, said Ashkin.

However, under questioning from Microsoft's attorney Richard Pepperman on Thursday, Ashkin admitted he had no documentary evidence to support his claims.

Later in the day, it was the turn of Red Hat's CTO, Michael Tiemann, to take the stand. He claimed PC vendors were too afraid of Microsoft to pre-install Linux on their machines.

They live in fear of retaliation, he told Judge Kollar-Kotelly.

Microsoft has failed to reach an agreement with nine US states over appropriate penalties for its past monopolistic actions. The states are suing Microsoft for punishment that goes beyond the November settlement agreed with nine other states and the US Department of Justice.

The hearings are expected to last for two months as the nine dissenting states call on Judge Kollar-Kotelly to impose more stringent sanctions. One proposal is that Microsoft sells a modular version of Windows that would allow PC vendors to strip out features such as Internet Explorer and add another vendor's browser.

Also under discussion is a proposal that would force Microsoft to offer its browser royalty free and disclose more detailed information about the workings of its software.