Posted on 11/21/2011 8:32:43 PM PST by smokingfrog
Microsoft's Bill Gates took the witness stand Monday in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit accusing the software maker of duping a competitor prior to its rollout of Windows 95.
Gates began his testimony with a history of Microsoft Corp. and was expected to remain on the stand throughout the day. He said he was just 19 when he helped found the software giant.
We thought everybody would have a personal computer on every desk and in every home, he said. We wanted to be there and be the first.
Gates, wearing a gray suit and a yellow tie, was the first witness to testify Monday as Microsoft lawyers presented their case in the trial that's been ongoing in federal court in Salt Lake City for about a month.
Utah-based Novell Inc. sued Microsoft in 2004, claiming the Redmond, Washington, company violated U.S. antitrust laws through its arrangements with other computer makers when it launched Windows 95. Novell says it was later forced to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.
The company argues that Gates, Microsoft's co-founder, ordered company engineers to reject WordPerfect as a Windows 95 application because he feared it was too good. WordPerfect's share of the market then plummeted from nearly 50 percent to less than 10 percent as Microsoft's own office programs took hold.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Word blew AmiPro out of the water when it came to printing envelopes. That’s where Word won me over.
I like Word Pad.
The first word processing programs I saw/useed were Electric Pencil (Michael Shrayer) and Scripsit from Tandy R/S.
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