UNITED STATES OF AMERICA et al v. MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Filing 850

STATUS REPORT SUPPLEMENTAL by MICROSOFT CORPORATION. (Rule, Charles)

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA et al v. MICROSOFT CORPORATION Doc. 85 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaint iff, v. MICROSOFT CORPORATION, Defendant. Civil Action No. 98-1232 (CKK) Next Court Deadline: June 19, 2007 Joint Status Report SUPPLEMENTAL STATUS REPORT ON MICROSOFT'S COMPLIANCE WITH THE FINAL JUDGMENTS Microsoft hereby files its Monthly Supplemental Status Report regarding compliance with the Final Judgments. This Supplemental Status Report details Microsoft's progress in revising the technical documentation in connection with the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program ("MCPP") and other Windows-related matters. I. Microsoft's Progress in Modifying the Technical Documentation As explained in detail in Microsoft's February 15, 2007 Supplemental Status Report and the March 6, 2007 Joint Status Report, Microsoft is proceeding under the following schedule for the Initial Availability release of the revised MCPP documentation: Dockets.Justia.com Milestone Milestone 1 Milestone 2 Milestone 3 Longhorn Milestone Milestone 4 Milestone 5 Initial Availability to Licensees Delivered Delivered Delivered Delivered Delivered 7/20/2007 Number of Documents1 31 24 38 29 34 39 Since the previous Status Report, Microsoft delivered the Initial Availability Milestone 4 documents as planned on May 11, 2007. Microsoft is on track to produce the Initial Availability Milestone 5 documents. Microsoft delivered the Online Build documentation for Milestones 1 and 2 on January 19, 2007 and March 3, 2007, respectively, and is on track to deliver the Online Build documentation for Milestone 3 on June 1, 2007. The remaining Online Build documentation is scheduled to be delivered as follows: Longhorn Milestone on July 3, 2007; Milestone 4 on August 10, 2007; and Milestone 5 on September 28, 2007. Microsoft also is continuing its ongoing work to provide an XML markup of the technical documentation that the Technical Committee and Mr. Hunt (collectively referred to as the "TC") plan to use in connection with their internal testing efforts. As mentioned in the previous Supplemental Status Report, Microsoft has hired an additional senior engineer to assist with this project. Since the previous report, Microsoft and the TC have been engaged in a constructive dialogue regarding the XML markup and significant progress has been made. Microsoft has reduced significantly the outstanding XML markup issues raised by the TC and is addressing 1 As explained in previous status reports, the precise number of documents that Microsoft plans to produce in connection with the MCPP documentation is likely to be adjusted as the documentation is being rewritten and the project moves toward completion. Accordingly, the number of documents to be produced as part of Milestone 5 has been adjusted from 40 to 39. These adjustments will not affect Microsoft's ability to meet the schedule. Future minor adjustments remain possible. 2 newly found issues. On April 18, 2007, the TC shared its XML markup parsing tools with Microsoft. These tools have proven to be valuable to Microsoft in its efforts to modify the XML markup that was previously provided by Microsoft and should facilitate the process of preparing future submissions as well. As the TC's testing work is an evolving project, Microsoft's efforts to revise the XML markup will be ongoing as well. Accordingly, Microsoft will continue to modify the XML markup as the TC's testing work moves forward and as new information and changes are requested. In addition, as Microsoft documents the many protocols it already has identified, it continues to explore in greater detail the functionality of its client and server software. As part of this work, Microsoft has concluded that two additional protocols should be included in the MCPP. Microsoft brought these two additional protocols to the attention of the TC during a meeting on May 1, 2007. These protocols offer limited functionality that Microsoft originally did not believe to be within the scope of the MCPP. Upon further review and with the benefit of knowledge and experience gained during the documentation process, however, Microsoft now has determined that the two protocols should be added to the MCPP and will be documented in the upcoming Milestone 5.2 The addition of these two protocols will not impact the schedule for delivery o f the rewritten documentation. A. Current Status of Microsoft's Progress in Resolving Technical Documentation Issues ("TDIs") through March 31, 2007 As noted in previous Status Reports, Microsoft is working to address the TDIs in the old technical documentation in the course of rewriting the new technical documentation. 2 The additional protocols are RASADV Multicast Announcement and the IManagedObject Interface. RASADV involves a remote access server ("RAS") server "broadcasting" itself to a local network so that an administrator can locate it and fix any misconfiguration. The engineers responsible for this technology originally believed that the functionality was limited to server products, but later discovered that the Windows client had a very simple "receiver" that could pick up the broadcast and display it on the client screen. IManagedObject is a protocol that identifies whether code is "managed" or "unmanaged." The responsible engineers originally believed that the functionality involved was local only, but later discovered that it could involve communications between computers. 3 Accordingly, Microsoft will review the Online Build documentation for each Milestone as it is produced to ensure that all previously existing TDIs relating to that Milestone (including those that were previously closed and those that were not addressed in the old documentation) are addressed. Based on this review, Microsoft now has closed all of the TDIs addressed by the Milestone 1 and Milestone 2 documentation. The current status of TDIs in the old documentation for the previous month is set forth below. Overall, the total number of outstanding old TDIs has continued to drop as Microsoft anticipated at the beginning of the rewrite project. As of 3/31/2007 Period Ended 4/30/2007 Old Document TDIs 60-Day TDIs Submitted by the TC Submitted this period Closed this period Outstanding Other TDIs Submitted by the TC Submitted this period Closed this period Outstanding TC Subtotal Outstanding TDIs Identified by Microsoft Ident ified this period Closed this period Outstanding Total Outstanding 0 7 124 117 0 3 474 598 471 588 0 67 89 687 30 618 4 Microsoft will continue to update the Court regarding its progress in resolving TDIs from the old documentation. Moreover, the TC will continue to identify TDIs in the old documentation that has not yet been rewritten. Given the volume and complexity of the new technical documentation, it is inevitable that additional TDIs will emerge in the newly rewritten documentation, even as TDIs in the old documentation are being resolved. The TC will identify all TDIs in the new Online Build documentation according to the three priority levels that were described in the March 6, 2007 Joint Status Report. In addition to TDIs identified by the TC, Microsoft will continue to track and report the number of TDIs that have been self-identified through Microsoft's testing efforts, as well as those submitted by licensees. The current status of TDIs identified in rewritten documentation through March 31, 2007 is noted in the chart below. 5 Rewritten Document TDIs Priority 1 TDIs Submitted by the TC Submitted this period Closed this period Outstanding Priority 2 TDIs Submitted by the TC Submitted this period Closed this period Outstanding Priority 3 TDIs Submitted by the TC Submitted this period Closed this period Outstanding TC Submitted TC Closed TC Outstanding TDIs Identified by Microsoft Identified this period Closed this period Microsoft Outstanding TDIs Identified by Licensees Identified this period Closed this period Licensee Outstanding Total Outstanding As of 3/31/20073 Period Ended 4/30/2007 10 12 30 21 33 96 9 26 32 108 72 55 40 71 181 212 196 44 76 164 0 0 0 345 0 413 II. Technical Documentation Testing A. Protocol Test Suite Microsoft completed its development of a preliminary cluster of test suites by the target date of March 31, 2007. Microsoft is continuing its work on scheduling and producing 3 The TDI numbers as of March 31, 2007 reported in this chart differ slightly from the numbers provided in the previous Status Report because the dynamic nature of synchronizing both the TC's and Microsoft's TDI databases occasionally results in priority levels and exact TDI closure dates changing after the previous reporting period. 6 addit ional clusters of test suites on a quarterly basis. The protocols to be included in the quarterly releases will be prioritized to correspond to the release of the rewritten technical documentation and to emphasize those protocols that are likely to be of greatest value to licensees. The next cluster of work is on track to be completed by the end of June. B. Interoperability Lab On August 30, 2006, Microsoft announced to MCPP licensees the availability, at no charge, of Microsoft's Interoperability Lab in the Microsoft Enterprise Engineering Center for testing licensee implementations of MCPP protocols. The Interoperability Lab offers direct access to Microsoft product development teams and technical support from Microsoft's engineering staff to address issues that may arise during testing. Microsoft has conducted a series of in-person visits to most licensees in order to promote the availability of these services. One Proxy/Firewall licensee has scheduled a visit to the Interoperability Lab during June 2007, and two licensees are in the process of scheduling dates for participation. One of these is a File Sharing licensee that plans to visit the lab during the second half of 2007. Several Licensees toured the Interoperability Lab and met the staff while attending the File Sharing plug-fest held from April 30 to May 4, 2007. C. Plug-fests As noted in previous Status Reports, Microsoft hosted its first plug-fest, which was for licensees of the Media Streaming Protocols, on December 12-14, 2006. The File Server Protocols plug-fest took place in Redmond on April 30-May 3, 2007. Four licensees (18 people) attended this event. Seven members of the TC's staff and Craig Hunt also took part as registered participants and had the opportunity to hold private, scheduled conversations with licensees. Feedback on the plug-fest has been very positive. Finally, the initial Authentication and Certificate Services Protocols plug-fest will be held during the third quarter of 2007. Additional plug-fest events are being considered, and planning for these future events will reflect the feedback received from licensees. 7 III. Technical Documentation Team Staffing Robert Muglia, the Senior Vice President for Microsoft's Server and Tools Business, continues to manage the documentation effort along with additional senior product engineering team managers. Altogether, approximately 320 Microsoft employees and contingent staff are involved in work on the MCPP technical documentation. Given the substantial overlap between the MCPP and the European Work Group Server Protocol Program, all of these individuals devote their efforts to work that relates to both programs or that is exclusive to the MCPP. Of these, approximately 150 product team engineers and program managers are actively involved in the creation and review of the technical content of the documentation. In addition, there are approximately 24 full-time employees and 46 contingent staff working as technical writers, editors, and production technicians. In addition, as the protocol testing effort has started, there are now approximately 20 full-time employees and approximately 80 contingent staff and vendor staff working as software test designers, test engineers, and test architects. Significant attention and involvement in the technical documentation and the MCPP extend through all levels of the Microsoft organization and draw upon the resources of numerous product engineering, business, technical, and legal groups, as well as company management. 8 IV. Windows Vista and XP Related Matters As reported in its previous supplemental status report, Microsoft has been working cooperatively to address a number of changes requested by the TC concerning Windows XP, the OEM Preinstallation Kit, and other Microsoft applications, regardless of whether these requests relate to Microsoft's middleware and default obligations under Sections III.C and III.H of the Final Judgments. Microsoft and the TC have been meeting weekly to work towards resolutions in these areas. Microsoft will update the Court on its continuing efforts with the TC in future reports. Dated: May 15, 2007 Respect fully submitted, FOR DEFENDANT MICROSOFT CORPORATION /s/ CHARLES F. RULE CHARLES F. RULE (DC BAR No. 370818) Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP 1201 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20004 (202) 862-2420 BRADFORD L. SMITH MARY SNAPP DAVID A. HEINER, JR. Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 (425) 936-8080 STEVE L. HOLLEY RICHARD C. PEPPERMAN II Sullivan & Cromwell LLP 125 Broad Street New York, NY 10004 (212) 558-4000 9

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