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CNN Live At Daybreak

What Does Microsoft Ruling Mean for You?

Aired June 29, 2001 - 08:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: A U.S. appeals court has set the Microsoft case on its corporate ear. And our viewers have been e- mailing questions about Microsoft and yesterday's ruling.

BRIAN NELSON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. We're going to take those questions now and get some answers.

Declan McCullagh, Washington bureau chief of Wire.com, has been covering the case since 1997, when it started. And he joins us now to answer some of the first questions.

LIN: Good morning.

DECLAN MCCULLAGH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, WIRE.COM: Good morning.

LIN: We've got a question here from Tom out of Raleigh, North Carolina. And he's asking: "I am one of those few that were using Microsoft Office 95 that can not update to the new Office XP due to the new licensing restrictions. It is my understanding that this will not change as a result of the new ruling.

MCCULLAGH: Unfortunately , think he's correct. He's going to have to maybe upgrade to something in between or buy a whole new product. This is basically just a product upgrade pass. And it's not going to be changed by the ruling. So that's the bad news in this case. I'm sorry.

NELSON: OK, from Scott in of Sebastopol, California: "Does this ruling mean we're again going to be forced to buy Windows on our PCs when we" -- I think bought -- "when those PCs are bought from major manufacturers, even when we use an alternate O.S. such as Linux?"

MCCULLAGH: Again, bad news for Scott in this case: The ruling does not change the way Microsoft works with OEMs. That is computer makers like Compaq and Dell.

And so, for the foreseeable future, at least, you'll see mainstream manufacturers offering Windows as the default choice. That doesn't mean that you can't have a PC company start up and say: We're just going to sell Linux. We're just going to sell free BSD as defaults. But the market doesn't seem to be moving in that direction.

NELSON: Go ahead. Have you got a question? LIN: Declan, I was just wondering: You know, this case has been going on so long. And the technology is changing. And people are using the Internet in so many different ways other than getting it off your PC. How is this case, at this point, likely to affect us using the Internet off of our Palm Pilots, off of our cell phones?

MCCULLAGH: Yes, that's really goes to the heart of the appeals court decision yesterday, because the appeals court is just ruling on what Microsoft was doing really in the mid-1990s. And this was when the browser war was really important. And the only way we were accessing the Internet was from our PCs.

Microsoft is much less competitive in areas like handheld computers and wireless. And I think that, over time, we're going to see Microsoft's dominance eroded through advances in new technology because Microsoft isn't as -- isn't as strong a competitor in these markets. And so we probably won't be using Microsoft that much five or 10 years from now. But it'll be because of technology and not the appeals court.

NELSON: I remember, though, that we said we wouldn't be using their browser either. But that was -- that's history.

(LAUGHTER)

NELSON: All right.

LIN: I knew that was going to happen.

NELSON: Thanks so much for taking time to talk to us.

LIN: Declan, we're holding you captive this morning. So stand by because lots of you probably have some more questions. So go ahead and e-mail them to us. You still have time.

Here's the address: microsoftquestions@cnn.com . We'll be answering questions all morning long.

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