Microsoft outlined concerns about Linux in memos

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Speaking for nine states and the District of Columbia in the ongoing antitrust case, attorney Steven Kuney displayed documents that allegedly showed Microsoft confronted and coerced even longtime partners like hardware maker Dell.

The nine states and the district decided not to go along with the Justice Department's settlement with Microsoft, which nine other states joined last fall.

Kuney exhibited a memo directing Microsoft staffers meeting with top Dell employees in mid-2000 to press Dell to reveal its intentions around Linux, then an upstart operating system gaining mindshare among developers for its open-source roots.

The memo read, in part, "'It's untenable for our premier partner on Windows 2000 to be doing aggressive market development for another operating system."

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"If [the Dell executive protests he's not being aggressive, we should remind him who sponsored LinuxWorld this year," the memo concluded.

Not long afterward, Dell quietly shut down the Linux unit and let go the leader of the group, Rick Heffernan, according to another document Kuney projected on-screen in the courtroom.

Kuney suggested that the company would do so again unless more stringent enforcement measures -- such as those outlined in the states' proposed remedy -- were applied.

A similar exchange took place earlier with Compaq. Microsoft talking points for meetings with that OEM partner included the exhortation to "'press Eckhard [Pfeiffer, then CEO of Compaq on what is the cohesive Linux/Unix strategy."

"[Compaq should meet demand, but not help create demand," the memo stated.

Yet another memo Kuney displayed, from August 2000, was from Jackson Kempin, Microsoft's director of OEM relations, to then-CEO Bill Gates, which detailed ways to "step up the anti-Linux strategy," Kuney said.

Gates is expected to testify during the trial, which could last several months.