Bill Gates" two days in court are now over. Microsoft"s co-founder and chairman has concluded his testimony in Salt Lake City in the current trial where former WordPerfect owner Novell claims that Microsoft conspired to stop the development of WordPerfect in favor of Microsoft" own Word product.
The Salt Lake City Tribune reports that Gates gave 11 total hours of testimony in the trial, which began in mid-October and is scheduled to end in about three weeks. Gates said after leaving the court room on Tuesday, "I’m glad I had a chance to clarify things."
Gates and Microsoft"s attorneys have claimed that Microsoft feared that Novell"s WordPerfect might crash Windows 95 and that was the reason Microsoft didn"t want to include the word processor software in its new PC operating system. The Washington Post reports that during the trial on Tuesday, Gates said that WordPerfect was a "bulky, slow, buggy product" at that time and that Microsoft"s own Word program was "far superior".
After Gates" testimony on Tuesday, Microsoft"s attorney David Tulchin praised him, saying, "We think we’re way ahead and that Bill Gates did a great job."
The trial will take a Thanksgiving break and will resume Monday with Microsoft continuing to defend its position. The judge in the case, U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz, said he hopes to give the case over to the jury the week before Christmas.