Gates To CRN: We Still Won't Budge On Integration

Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates said he remains committed to settlement talks with the government, but he won't budge when it comes to integrating the company's products and Web services.

In a meeting with CRN just prior to his keynote at Fusion 2001 here, Gates said he would not provide ongoing updates on settlement efforts, but was firm in that the appellate court's reversal of the "illegal tying" issue frees Microsoft to integrate its browser, or any Internet services technologies, with Windows.

"No, it's a totally pro-integration [ruling] for HTML Help, Windows Update; there was nothing in there that was not 100 percent supportive," Gates said, when asked if he was concerned that the district court might broaden the scope of the integration issue to include HailStorm and other Internet technologies. "This is a case about the browser, and that is what it was about," he said.

In its long-awaited ruling late last month, the U.S. Court of Appeals upheld illegal monopoly maintenance charges against the company but reversed the illegal tying claim and kicked it back to the district court for further deliberation. The U.S. Justice Department filed a motion late last week to expedite those hearings on the tying issue.

In the interim, Microsoft is busy integrating HailStorm services tightly with its forthcoming Windows XP, Office XP, Windows.Net server and bCentral Web services, Gates said.

Gates also confirmed that the corporate federated services, due beyond the first release of the HailStorm platform sometime in 2002, will elevate that integration level even higher.

"That's right. Corporate federation is key to this, and we need to make this clear. .Net is about symmetry between services on the Internet, corporate servers and PC clients. The vision of HailStorm is a very broad vision."

Gates dismissed any concern about the possibility that several state attorneys general and the Justice Department might expand the "co-mingling of code" issue discussion to include some of these newer Internet technologies Microsoft wants to integrate.

"No, it was a case about the browser," Gates said plainly.

Gates, who was on hand at the company's Fusion 2001 partner show in Anaheim, said the company's decision last week to give OEMs more flexibility in configuring the Windows desktop was not a result of any settlement talks. "It's a decision we made in light of where we stood legally," he said. "It has nothing to do with settlement talks. We will pursue that as one option, but this decision is related to what we're doing with Windows XP."

Gates would not comment on whether Microsoft will appeal aspects of the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.