Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates has testified in an antitrust lawsuit started by software group Novell in 2004, according to the Associated Press.
Gates took to the stand to argue against Novell’s accusation that Microsoft said it would sell the WordPerfect software as part of the Windows 95 operating system, but ended up not doing so.
Gates has argued that Novell couldn’t get the software ready in time for launch, saying Word was a better product, and that WordPerfect was a “bulky, slow, buggy product”.
“We worked super hard. It was the most challenging, trying project we had ever done,” Gates said, referring to the Windows 95 project. “It was a ground-breaking piece of work, and it was very well received when we got it done.”
Novell says it was forced sell the WordPerfect software later on that resulted in a loss of $US1.2 billion.
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