Microsoft Grills Red Hat in Antitrust Case
Reuters | at | by Mike
An attorney for Microsoft Corp. argued in court on Monday that Red Hat Inc. had failed to popularize the Linux computer operating system because of its own shortcomings, not because of any interference from Microsoft. Cross-examining Red Hat Chief Technology Officer Michael Tiemann, Microsoft attorney Stephanie Wheeler said Red Hat had spent little money on research and development, and dedicated few of its employees to winning over software developers to write programs for Linux.
Wheeler showed U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly financial disclosures from Red Hat showing the company had spent $18.8 million on research in fiscal year 2001, a pittance compared to the R&D budgets of larger software companies. Nor does Red Hat have any "evangelists" on staff to convince software developers to write programs for Linux, Wheeler said.