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States cancel plans to show feasibility of altered Windows

Nine states seeking strong antitrust sanctions against Microsoft Corp on Thursday abruptly canceled plans to demonstrate the feasibility of one of their key demands -- a version of the Windows operating system with removable features.

The states said they had made the decision to avoid prolonging the case after Microsoft said it needed an indefinite period of time to prepare.

US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Koteely had also expressed annoyance at the states' late introduction of voluminous supporting documents.

"Our sense is that she's ready for this to conclude," said Tom Greene, an assistant attorney general for California.

A modular version of Windows is one of the key demands of the nine states that have rejected a proposed settlement of the landmark case.

Greene said the states' concluded that the demonstration was unnecessary because Microsoft's witnesses had never backed up the company's assertion that it was impossible to create a modular version of the operating system.

"Our sense is we're in as good a shape as we're going to be," Greene said outside of court.

The states received an angry rebuke from Kollar-Kotelly earlier on Thursday for dumping documents on Microsoft at the last minute.

"This is absolutely astounding," she told the states' legal team. "I cannot tell you I am happy about the way this has been done."

Microsoft attorney Steve Holley had told Kollar-Kotelly it would be "an extensive enterprise" for the company's lawyers to prepare a response. "We're not talking about a matter of hours or even a matter of days," Holley said.

Earlier this week Kollar-Kotelly had expressed interest in seeing the version of Windows developed by computer testing expert James Bach, in what had seemed like a small victory for the states.

The states say a version of Windows in which some features can be removed would level the competitive playing field for non-Microsoft software.
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