States claim Microsoft can make Windows "light"

Microsoft has lied about not being able to produce a stripped-down version of

the Windows operating system, according to the nine US states who are opposing

the antitrust settlement between the software company and the US Justice

Department. As a result, the states are asking for even tougher sanctions.

During the past two weeks, computer software experts representing the states

have examined Microsoft's Windows source code. Microsoft was ordered to provide

the code for examination by the US District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly

who is overseeing the penalty phase of the case.

Microsoft has repeatedly claimed that producing a stripped-down version of

Windows, one without bundled applications like the Explorer browser and Media

Player was technically impossible. Microsoft claims the bundled applications,

especially the browser, are so ingrained into Windows that to remove them would

cripple the operating system. The company has said that the demand for a

"light" version of Windows would subject Microsoft, the PC industry

and consumers to "extreme harm. The states' penalty would require Microsoft

to do the impossible - remove critical software code from its operating system

yet somehow preserve the functionality supplied by that software code,''

Microsoft lawyers wrote in earlier statements to the court.

That claim was refuted by the States' experts. The disclosure comes less than

a week before the penalty hearings start. Connecticut Attorney General Richard

Blumenthal, who has been the primary spokesman for the group of states opposing

the settlement said, "The modified measures should deflate Microsoft's

overblown rhetoric and apocalyptic predictions about the proposed

remedies."

But the states said their experts have concluded that "While Microsoft

may require some time to perform this task, there is nothing inherently

impossible about ensuring the presence of functionality that Microsoft has

already developed. Notwithstanding Microsoft's apocalyptic predictions about the

potential wholesale copying of its source code, the rights of third parties to

use information disclosed to them are bounded,'' the states' lawyers wrote.

Microsoft did agree to one new concession this past week-end. The company

said its would agree to changes in the settlement agreement that had threatened

to make it all but impossible for computer hardware companies to force Microsoft

to honor their patent rights.

Beside a light version of windows, the States have also asked the judge to

order Microsoft to release the source code for the Internet Explorer browser and

its future successors. And they want Microsoft to distribute the

industry-standard version of the Java programming language.