Microsoft Corp will get a good idea of how long its Windows 98 antitrust fight with the federal government and the states is going to take at a hearing this Friday, May 22. Judge Thomas Penfold Jackson, the presiding judge in the case, will use the hearing to try to lay out a timetable, setting deadlines for filings, and may also schedule the first court proceedings to hear evidence. Bloomberg believes Friday may mark the debut of New York trial lawyer David Boies, who has been hired by the Department of Justice to lead its case against Microsoft. Boies represented IBM Corp, successfully in its antitrust spat with the US government. Meanwhile, two major PC vendors backed the Justice Department’s case yesterday by saying that Microsoft had hindered them in offering customer choice. Statements from Gateway 2000 Inc and Hewlett-Packard Co were included in papers filed as part of the antitrust department’s lawsuit.
