Choose Your Words Carefully

[DigitalX]

The U.S. Justice Department and the state attorneys general have submitted a list of Longhorn issues on which they want more information, and Microsoft has agreed to give regular briefings, with the first of those taking place in February.

 

U.S. federal and state antitrust Latest News about Antitrust regulators are due to meet with MicrosoftRelevant Products/Services from Microsoft in mid-February to discuss possible areas of concern regarding Longhorn, Microsoft's next version of Windows.

 

The meeting is an outcome of the long-running U.S. Department of Justice Latest News about U.S. Department of Justice vs. Microsoft antitrust case, according to a report issued late Tuesday by a district court.

 

As part of the settlement of 2001, the plaintiffs and a court-appointed technical committee have been in charge of monitoring Microsoft's operating system.

 

"Plaintiffs have prepared a list of topics that relate to the final judgments that plaintiffs wish to track as Microsoft progresses in its development of Longhorn, enabling early detection and resolution of any potential areas of concern," the report said.

 

For some months now, the Department of Justice and several states have been reviewing plans for the new operating system, which is expected to ship next year.

 

The Justice Department and the state attorneys general have submitted a list of issues on which they want more information, and Microsoft has agreed to give regular briefings, with the first of those taking place in February.

 

The report noted that more companies have taken out licenses for the communications protocols Microsoft made available as part of its settlement of the case.

 

Under the terms of the settlement, Microsoft is required to license, for a fee, a set of Windows communications protocols, essentially the means by which rivals can connect to Windows-based computers.

 

In addition, an independent technical committee plans to develop its own prototype software using the protocols, in an effort to see whether Microsoft's documentation is adequate, which is a point that has been a subject of some disagreement in the past.

 

The committee will hire about 20 additional engineers to complete that work, which it expects will take a year.

 

Microsoft has also agreed to change the format in which it distributes the technical information. It has been distributing the information in a rights-protected format that can only be read with its Internet Explorer browser.

 

The company said it will offer the information instead via the Portable Document Format, or PDF, developed by rival Adobe Latest News about Adobe.

 

"We think it's important that we work closely and openly with the DOJ and states early in the process to address any questions and concerns," said Microsoft spokeswoman Stacy Drake.