Bill Gates testifies at Senate hearing

Microsoft chairman and CEO Bill Gates, along with other industry luminariessuch as Michael Dell, Jim Barksdale, and Scott McNealy, appeared before aSenate judiciary committee today to testify about Microsoft's dominant position in the software industry. The testimony was carried live on Tuesday morning by CNN.

Gates told the committee that his company does not have a monopoly inoperating systems.

"As you know, a monopolist, by definition, is a company that has the ability to restrict entry by new firms and unilaterally control price. Microsoft can do neither," Gates said.

Netscape's Jim Barksdale, who joined Sun's Scott McNealy in a decidedly McCarthyism-like press conference the night before (it was even held infront of a huge American flag), told reporters that his Navigator 4.0wouldn't even run on Windows 98, which is, of course, totally untrue.

"I and many others have become increasingly concerned that Microsoft's abuse of its monopoly power, unless addressed through enforcement of our antitrust laws, will adversely affect the course of American commerce andcommunications in the information age," Barksdale said to the committee.

Gates defended Microsoft and denied persistent talk that the company wantsto use the Internet as a private toll road. He called the idea that any onecompany could control the Internet "preposterous".

"I can say without hesitation that it is not, nor has it ever been, the intention of my company to turn the information superhighway into a toll road," he said.

Sun's Scott McNealy had the best comment of the day, however.

"The only thing I'd rather own more than Windows is the English language...then, I could charge everyone to use it and charge more when I added newletters like 'N' and 'T'," McNealy said to laughs