MS on Trial The Microsoft trial has now taken 17 weeks (twice as long as initial estimates) and there are probably at least three more weeks to go with rebuttal witnesses and closing arguments. There remains an outside chance that Gates will be roped in as a third rebuttal witness, to rebut his own non-testimony so-to-speak. But with Mrs G expecting again, the odds are that he's none too keen on the idea, especially as he could expect to be in the box for at least a week, and possibly two weeks. Gates will know where to put the blame however: stand up Bill Neukom, the man who got Microsoft off the hook with a toothless consent decree, who wrote his own press release when he was promoted to senior vice president afterwards, and who foolishly dated a Gates' girlfriend (although her deposition about alleged Microsoft document destruction has not yet surfaced in this trial, but could be a serious factor n Caldera versus Microsoft). Microsoft's defence in the trial was disastrous. The company lacks true friends in useful places, and the chums that did come along were hopelessly beholden to the Microsoft shilling: if he said anything important, nobody is likely to remember it. Microsoft's executives did not show any of the real expertise seen in "Java" Gosling, "OS/2" Soyring, "QuickTime" Tevanian or "Air Supply" McGeady. Microsoft's witnesses came across as semi-entrepreneurial wheeler dealers of mediocre merit, gluing together irregularly-shaped components and covering them with shrinkwrap. Microsoft is not focussed on software engineering, it is focussed on survival: but its lifeboats have holes. ® Complete Register trial coverage