Microsoft Attorney Takes Red Hat To Task

Microsoft Red Hat

During the remedy phase of the Microsoft antitrust trial here in U.S. District Court, attorney Stephanie Wheeler used 2001 10K forms to contrast the whopping $4.3 billion Microsoft spent on research and development last year compared with $18.8 million for Red Hat, $430 million for Apple and approximately $2 billion for Sun Microsystems.

When questioned by Wheeler about whether Red Hat has employees who are paid to port third-party applications to Linux or whether Red Hat has a full-time technology evangelist, Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann said, "There is no need to pay people because there are so many people that already do that. Employing such a person would be redundant."

Among other things, Microsoft is attempting to show that its competitors, including Red Hat, have not set forth anywhere close to the huge research and development outlays and other resources that Microsoft has in developing and marketing its products.

When Wheeler asked how many developer conferences Red Hat has hosted in the past two years, Tiemann noted that between Linuxworld and other Linux-focused conferences there would be "no additional benefit" for Red Hat to sponsor its own conference.

Wheeler said companies like IBM, Sun's iPlanet division and Apple all develop applications to run on their operating systems. "Do you think these examples [of companies suggest that one way to be a successful operating system vendor is to develop apps for your OS?" Wheeler asked. Tiemann responded that her statement was a "presumption" of how successful companies are built.

Reminding Tiemann that in his written testimony he described Microsoft's Office productivity suite as the "albatross around Red Hat's neck," Wheeler pointed out that the Linux operating system runs Sun's Star Office Office productivity suite.

Tiemann said that Red Hat clients almost always ask him whether Microsoft Office can run on Linux. In his written testimony, Tiemann said Cisco Systems, a current Red Hat client, has asked him if he would request that Microsoft port its Office productivity suite to Linux.

The remedy phase of the antitrust trial is in its second week and continues with more testimony Monday afternoon.