HIGH TECH CORNER: MICROSOFT VS. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

Tuesday was to be the big day for the Microsoft antitrust case, but it is not going to happen. District Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson really wants the two sides to come to an agreement. If this happens, he does not have to make a ruling.

The judge making a ruling in either sides' favor will definitely make a lot of people unhappy. So Microsoft made some last-minute offers to the government. The big one was that Microsoft offered to release a version of Windows without bundling its own Web software in the product. No IE onboard, which I feel will make Windows customers very unhappy. Even if you wanted to go online and get Netscape, you would not have a browser to go to the Netscape homepage to download it. You would also not get the Internet Express E-mail Client as well. Any of you using the Internet Sharing wizard for several PCs to connect to the Internet with one modem would miss this feature as well. Microsoft would still offer these Internet items in separate Internet packages or by download.

Microsoft manages to keep its nose to the grindstone even with the government on its back. The next consumer version of Windows just went out to all us beta testers. Windows Millennium is not Windows 2000. It is the next version of Windows 98 and will offer at ship time more compatibility with existing software and hardware on the market. Although previously Microsoft stated the Windows 98 would be the last of the Win9x-lernel, it did not turn out to be so. There is tremendous money to be made by Microsoft in an upgrade of this nature. WindowsMe is truly oriented towards the consumer who likes multi-media. However, video applications like Adobe Premiere still don't work correctly. So Microsoft still has some work to do.

And even though Microsoft is in the 11th hour of talks with the government, WindowsMe currently includes IE 5.5. Now for this to be a millennium release Microsoft would have to release it this year. That is, unless you hold to the thought that the millennium is not until next year.

Seagate Technology Inc. today announced a $20 billion deal that will make the world's No. 1 computer disk-drive maker a private company. Seagate divulged that its stockholders would receive about $77.50 a share for their Seagate stock. Friday evening the stock was sitting around 61 1/2, which would a good jump for stockholders. Seagate's plan is to form a private company to acquire Seagate's operating businesses for approximately $2 billion in cash. I personally use Seagate drives and can tell you that they are the most reliable and offer the largest storage out there.

It is odd that when most companies dream of being listed on the NASDAQ and having share prices go from Aprils 30 dollar rage to today's highs that you would even want to take your stock off of the market.

On the local Internet front, Class has recently upgraded their authentication and e-mail server to a Dual Pentium XEON-based computer. This has made a huge difference in Login In speed as well as how fast you can get your e-mail. If any other ISPs out there have been making any improvements, please send me an e-mail on any new features.

As always if you have any comments or questions, please contact me at rich@digitallabs.com, Digital Labs, Rich Comeau, 7636 County Road 621, Cape Girardeau, Mo. 63701, (573) 335-0141, fax (573) 335-0510, or e-mail sales@digitallabs.com.