With public opinion polls showing little support among the American public for splitting apart Microsoft, lawyers for the government are invoking the 1982 divestiture of AT&T as justification for their unprecedented plan. But equating the breakup of AT&T to the dismemberment of Microsoft is like comparing apples and oranges.

AT&T was a private monopoly fostered by the federal and state governments in the early 20th century to promote telephone service throughout the country. In exchange for a guaranteed profit, AT&T was heavily regulated to ensure that every American had reasonable access to the telephone network and that the phone company’s earnings were restricted to certain levels.

A half-century later, AT&T voluntarily agreed to a divestiture in order to escape the many restrictions that had been imposed over time, particularly as new technologies changed the dynamics of the telecommunications industry.

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I sometimes use this space to defend Microsoft Corp. against the US Justice Department. I do so for three reasons:

Much of the case against Microsoft is bogus.

To the extent that the company has done wrong, dismantling it is a grossly disproportionate response.

And finally, why bother? If Microsoft continues its recent idiocies, it will end up eviscerating itself. First there was the antitrust case, which the company could have settled painlessly a couple of years ago. Then there was the Love Bug virus that attacked millions of Microsoft-based computers worldwide, because Microsoft intentionally left dangerous security holes in its products. And now comes Microsoft's legal threat against Slashdot, one of the Internet's most respected technology sites.

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In an extraordinary covert filing by Microsoft in the antitrust case, the company claims that it would be too risky to develop Next Generation Windows Services if Microsoft is split into two companies.

The exact wording is: "Microsoft cannot undertake such a risky venture [developing NGWS], which will cost more in constant-dollar terms than Boeing's development of the 747 or NASA's first mission to the moon, unless Microsoft can call upon all of the company's resources in seeking to make it a success. Those resources include people and technologies on both sides of the bright line the government seeks to draw through Microsoft's tightly knit organisation." Microsoft then goes on to claim that: "Consumers will suffer if Microsoft no longer has the ability to undertake ambitious projects like Next Generation Windows Services, which (if successful) promises to transform the way in which consumers use the Internet, to the benefit of the entire economy."

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George W. Bush's financial-disclosure records show he's a multimillionaire with a huge trust fund, thousands of acres in Texas - and profits from Microsoft.

Bush's investments in Microsoft - up to $102,000 in stock - are notable because he has sent signals that he's on Bill Gates' side in the Clinton Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against the software giant. Bush has met privately with Gates, the mega-billionaire Microsoft founder, and has said he prefers "innovation over litigation" when asked about the lawsuit.

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Microsoft shares fell in Frankfurt trading Thursday morning after the government called on a U.S. district judge to reject the software giant's call to delay plans to split the company. Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft fell 1.20, or more than 1.5 percent, to 75.70. The government and 19 states vigorously defended their plans to split the world's biggest software company for violating antitrust laws.

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Microsoft has confirmed that it has released a beta-test version of the first bug-fix update for its Windows 2000 operating system.

The update--officially referred to as a service pack--is posted in beta form on Microsoft's MSDN Web site for developers. It is due to ship sometime this summer. Microsoft still recommends that users deploy Windows 2000 now and add Service Pack 1 when it becomes available, instead of waiting for the bug-fix update, a spokesperson says.

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In its upcoming update to MSN, Microsoft takes on consumer Internet access king America Online with an integrated desktop to go online, use e-mail, send instant messages, and peer through a portal to the rest of the Web.

Microsoft will preview its portal update by the end of May and expects to release the final version in fall. New MSN Internet access subscribers will find a simpler, animated installation process. Microsoft targets "an integrated consumer experience," says Joe Peterson, general manager of MSN immersive consumer experience. "It's not just about browsing."

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The worlds of broadcasting and Webcasting are inching closer, and in the near future, they may be one and the same. Microsoft and video systems maker SeaChange International will work together on a system to deliver video on demand using the Windows Media format. The idea would be to create a single file that could be streamed to both TVs and PCs.

Thirty-five percent of U.S. households will use interactive TV by the end of 2005, according to a recent report by Jupiter Communications.

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Calling Microsoft's suggestions neither "serious" nor "sensible," the Department of Justice and 19 state attorneys suing Microsoft took apart -- in 73 pages of detail -- the software giant's suggested remedy proposal in the ongoing antitrust case against it.

The government, which filed its reply memorandum late Wednesday evening, didn't deviate from trial watchers' expectations. It took issue with every component of Microsoft's suggestions, from the company's proposed delays to accommodate more hearings, to its claims that a breakup into two companies, as suggested by the government, would be unprecedented.

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Microsoft has released a comprehensive patch that eliminates three security vulnerabilities in Microsoft(r) Internet Explorer 4 and 5:
- The "Frame Domain Verification" vulnerability, which could allow a malicious web site operator to read, but not change or add, files on the computer of a visiting user.
- The "Unauthorized Cookie Access" vulnerability, which could allow a malicious web site operator to access "cookies" belonging to a visiting user.
- The "Malformed Component Attribute" vulnerability, which could allow a malicious web site operator to run code of his choice on the computer of a visiting user.

Affected Software Versions:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01

Patch Availability:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/download/critical/patch6.htm

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The recipe for online frustration is all too familiar to many Internet users. Enter a Web site, type in a user name and a password. Enter another Web site, type in another user name and password. Repeat until feelings of irritation are thoroughly stirred.

Microsoft Passport, designed to minimize such exasperating experiences, continues to attract online merchants who want to make using the Internet easier for their customers. The Microsoft Passport single sign-in service allows consumers to use the same user name and password at any participating Web site -- creating a more efficient, comfortable and enjoyable Internet experience. Single sign-in also helps Web sites eliminate the hassle of creating, protecting and managing user names and passwords for their users.

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Furthering its commitment to the support and promotion of the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Extensible Markup Language (XML), Microsoft Corp. today announced the newest version of its MSXML parser with built-in support for version 2.0 of the Simple API for XML (SAX2). The decision to implement the SAX2 programming interface, rather than develop a new one, is a reflection of Microsoft's commitment to deliver the features its customers demand. SAX2 is designed to enable faster and more efficient processing of XML by allowing programs to read, review and process XML files without having to load the entire document into memory.

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Microsoft Corp. today announced "fast boot" support for industry partners in the Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition (Me) operating system. Windows Me, combined with "fast boot"-optimized PC hardware like the Dell Dimension PC, will provide home users with faster access to their information, communications and entertainment any time.

Many home users today use their PC to perform quick tasks, such as looking up the latest news and weather. For those home users, Microsoft is working with its associates to improve boot time with Windows Me on new PCs. Microsoft has also made several improvements in Windows Me to enable faster-booting PCs, including registry improvements, removal of real mode and faster device initialization. In addition, Microsoft has provided a boot-time-measurement tool for computer manufacturers to help enable a true "fast boot" PC, with boot times of 30 seconds or less. This tool will help computer manufacturers identify which drivers and devices provide optimal boot-time performance on any given PC configuration.

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Microsoft and storage vendor CommVaultSystems Inc. on Wednesday extended an existing strategic alliance between the two companies. Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) invested an undisclosed amount in CommVault -- a vendor of network-attached storage and storage-area network products for Windows 2000 and Unix -- and can tout CommVault's Galaxy product as a way to store and manage data across heterogenous platforms from a central Windows platform.

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The first announcements of hotly anticipated products using Transmeta's low-power Crusoe chip could come next month, chief executive David Ditzel said today.

"The logical place to look for systems would be at PC Expo," the June convention in New York where tech firms show off upcoming products, Ditzel said in an interview with CNET News.com. The comments came after his speech at PricewaterhouseCooper's Technology Forecast: 2000 in Santa Clara, Calif.

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