As far as we can tell, there are four bits of news related to Microsoft today, but you wouldn't know it from the press coverage, as reporters went the a la carte route in assembling their stories, many of which featured only two or three of the items. Though the Seattle Times' Brier Dudley was describing the legal maneuvering in the antitrust case, his comment applies to the press coverage, too: "Tracking this case is like watching a chef simultaneously cooking an appetizer, entree and dessert."
Many reporters filled up on the appetizer: news of Microsoft's apparently long-held position that computer manufacturers must include at least three MS products' icons on the Windows XP desktop if they are also including competitors' icons. The Associated Press said MS came out with this revelation Thursday, but the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal said the information broke in an interview eWeek did with James Allchin, group vice president of MS's platform group, earlier this week. In the interview Allchin said, "The idea was that there were two options: the new, clean desktop style, where neither the OEM nor Microsoft placed any icons on the desktop, or the old style, where we both put icons on the desktop. … In hindsight, I feel bad that we didn't make this public."
He's not the only one who feels bad. AOL Time Warner vice president John Buckley griped to the AP, "Microsoft's message to consumers, computer makers and the government is, 'We own the desktop and there's nothing you can do about it."'
The main course, speculation from unnamed government sources that the Department of Justice would let XP launch as planned, was lightly attended by scribes. Edmund Sanders and Joseph Menn of the Los Angeles Times dined nearly alone on this one, quoting their source as saying, "There's a consensus that Windows XP should be dealt with in the final negotiation. We don't want to do anything that might appear to be anti-competitive." A Reuters source added, "Just because XP is released doesn't mean it's written in stone forever." The Motley Fool's Rex Moore disagreed, writing that "from a practical perspective, once XP is out there, the courts will have a harder time controlling what's in it."
As a third item, Moore's little side dish of a story suggested that Redmond is speeding up efforts to release XP before those meanies at the Department of Justice can take a swipe at it.
Then, of course, there are the political desserts – or just deserts. The Seattle Times' Dudley took the critic's angle, pegging those recent government leaks as evidence of the case's "new, more political approach" as it winds down. Dudley also brought up the letter, signed by 122 members of Congress, that asked MS, the state attorneys general and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft to please hurry up and settle the case. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg News report noted that White House staffers interrupted President Bush's Texas holiday to brief him on the government's next steps in the case. To one analyst, this means the sides "are getting down to the endgame." If that's truly the case, we propose a round of after-dinner drinks all around.
Microsoft Modifies Icon Concession
TheStandard.com
Microsoft says PC desktop must promote its products
SiliconValley.com (AP)
More Asterisks Added to Windows XP Icon Policy
Washington Post
Microsoft raises requirements on icon use by computer makers
MSNBC (WSJ)
Allchin: No plans to change anything in XP
ZDNet
Sources says U.S. unlikely to seek halt of Windows XP launch
SiliconValley.com (Retuers)
Government Won't Block Windows XP's Release
Los Angeles Times
Political jockeying surrounds XP debut
Seattle Times
Microsoft May Expedite XP
Motley Fool>
122 members of House press for end to Microsoft battle
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Officials Brief Bush About Next Steps in Microsoft Battle
Los Angeles Times>
