"A settlement is always going to be in a gray area," Miller said after the hearing. "There are things that we like and things that we don't like."
The attorney-general for the largest state, California's Bill Lockyer, said in a statement that he won't sign the 21-page document until he fully understands it.
Illinois Attorney-General Jim Ryan, a Republican running for governor next year, said that, pending a staff review, he's "inclined to sign on to the settlement because the terms appear to achieve the overall objectives of our lawsuit."
The two sides hammered out the final terms of the settlement only last night, a month after Kollar-Kotelly ordered around-the-clock settlement talks. The turning point came midday Wednesday, when all sides realized an agreement was within their reach, according to Eric Green, the Boston University law professor who served as mediator.
Any final agreement needs Kollar-Kotelly's approval, and several industry groups have vowed to challenge the accord as not in the public interest. That process is likely to last through February, the judge said in court today.
Microsoft's Windows operating system runs 95 percent of the world's personal computers, and critics fear the company will extend its monopoly into other markers such as the Internet.
AOL Time Warner, the largest Internet service company, said the agreement "does too little to promote competition and protect consumers."
Michael Morris, Sun Microsystems Inc's general counsel, said the decree lacked teeth, leaving "a host of ways Microsoft can put their thumbs on the scales the federal government will never figure out. They have shown that time after time."
Sun will seek to persuade the judge to reject the agreement, he said.
James said the US government "anticipates there will be broad state support" for the settlement. He said the Justice Department won't negotiate any changes, although the states are free to reach separate agreements with the software giant.
Although Kollar-Kotelly said in court that she hadn't studied the agreement, she praised the parties for their efforts and suggested the terrorist attacks had heightened the need for a quick resolution.
"I'm pleased that in this time of rapid national change, they were able to resolve their differences," she said during the 30-minute hearing.
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