MailBITS/03-Apr-00

April Fools Gotchas -- The mail has been thick over the weekend in response to our traditional April Fools issue (TidBITS-524), and all we can say is, "No mas!" That, and we'd like to apologize to all the people who were suckered by the articles in that issue, especially the one reporting on the internal Microsoft memo that outlined a plan to sell the company's Macintosh business unit to Apple as a concession to the Justice Department (special thanks to Omar Shahine, the Microsoft Outlook Express program manager, for providing the quotes that lent that extra touch of verisimilitude to the article). Fewer people fell for our discussion of the proposed MRML standard (Mind Reading Markup Language), but Geoff Duncan's tongue-in-cheek suggestion for how software companies could encourage more users to upgrade - documents that wear out as you use them - has unfortunately been well-received by some larger Macintosh software developers who shall remain nameless. [ACE]

<http://www.tidbits.com/tb-issues/TidBITS-524.html>
<http://www.oxy.edu/~ashes/mrml.html>

Microsoft Violated Anti-Trust Laws -- U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson has ruled that Microsoft Corporation violated the Sherman Anti-Trust Act by using its position in the Web browser market to "the detriment of competitors." The judge also found that Microsoft could be liable under state anti-competition laws. Judge Jackson must now schedule hearings later this year to consider remedies for Microsoft's actions, which could include structural changes to the company, business restrictions, or an actual breakup of the company. The only major point on which Judge Jackson disagreed with the government's case was that Microsoft's marketing arrangements with other companies did not ultimately exclude Netscape's browser software from the worldwide browser market. Microsoft has repeatedly said it would appeal any ruling against it; experts estimate the case could easily drag out to the year 2002. Microsoft stock was down nearly 15 percent in anticipation of Judge Jackson's announcement, dragging the NASDAQ index down 7.63 percent in its largest single-day point decline in history. [GD]

<http://usvms.gpo.gov/ms-conclusions.html>
<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbser=1152>

digital.forest Sponsoring TidBITS -- We're happy to welcome our latest long-term sponsor, the Macintosh-savvy Internet hosting company digital.forest. Located in the Seattle area, digital.forest has been in business since 1994 providing Mac-based Web hosting, FileMaker Pro database hosting, and server co-location services to companies around the world. We've known the folks at digital.forest for years, and when it came time to move our servers from their home at POPCO, digital.forest was our first choice because we wanted to work with people that used and understood Macs rather than just Unix or Windows. Plus, digital.forest's data center is a tour de force - an ever-increasing number of Macs of all sorts securely housed on earthquake-proof racks, Ethernet cabling neatly tied into tracks, tape changers performing daily backups via Retrospect, and the constant drone of the environmental systems. Equally important are the invisible aspects of the setup - the multiple high-speed Internet connections, constant network monitoring (with automatic rebooting capabilities for crashed servers), backup power, 24-hour tech support, and more. If you're tired of monitoring your own servers or just need a high bandwidth place to park a Web-enabled FileMaker Pro database, I'd encourage you to check out digital.forest's services. [ACE]

<http://www.forest.net/>

Poll Preview: System Shiftin' -- Many people expect Apple to release a minor update to Mac OS 9.0 in the near future, which provides all the excuse we need to ask a simple question basic to all Macintosh owners: What version of the Mac OS do you use on your primary Macintosh? If you're among the folks not running the Mac OS on your main Mac, you'll have to sit this one out, and if you have several Macs that you consider "primary" (a desktop Mac and a PowerBook, for instance) you'll need to choose one as more "primary" than the others. So come one, come all, and tell us which version of the Mac OS you're using by voting on our home page. [ACE]

<http://www.tidbits.com/>

Outlook Express 5.0.2 Correction -- Last week we briefly noted the changes in Outlook Express 5.0.2 along with the review of Internet Explorer 5.0. Unfortunately, our information came from pages on Microsoft's Web site that, it turns out, were just plain wrong with regard to the progress window. The real deal is that, along with numerous bug fixes, performance enhancements and stability improvements, Outlook Express 5.0.2 now supports SMTP AUTH, a method of authenticating yourself to your SMTP server when sending mail. SMTP AUTH is useful because the SMTP server can reject attempts to send it mail from anyone who isn't authenticated, and that in turn prevents spammers from using the SMTP server. Our apologies for any confusion. [ACE]

<http://db.tidbits.com/getbits.acgi?tbart=05872>