UNITED STATES OF AMERICA et al v. MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Filing 878

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

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA et al v. MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Doc. 878

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Plaintiff, v. MICROSOFT CORPORATION, Defendant. Civil Action No. 98-1232 (CKK) Next Court Deadline: August 15, 2008 Supplemental Status Report

SUPPLEMENTAL STATUS REPORT ON MICROSOFT S COMPLIANCE WITH THE FINAL JUDGMENTS Microsoft hereby files its Monthly Supplemental Status Report regarding its 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 previously reported, Microsoft has delivered all of the Milestones associated with the rewrite program. In addition to this documentation, Microsoft has produced additional overview/reference materials in order to assist licensees in using the technical documentation. Microsoft firmly believes that the current protocol documentation available to implementers enables interoperability with Windows and fully complies with the Final Judgments. In response to the Technical Committee s ( TC ) request, Microsoft is undertaking a new effort to supplement the existing protocol documentation with additional System documents. As part of this process, on March 31, 2008, Microsoft delivered three initial System documents to the TC. Since delivering these documents in March, Microsoft has provided updates to these three initial System documents in addition to three additional draft System documents, which

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were provided on June 9, 2008, June 23, 2008, and July 8, 2008. As Microsoft informed the Court during the previous Joint Status Conference, Microsoft plans to identify various milestones in order to assist the tracking and review of these documents. Microsoft expects to provide details regarding these milestones in its upcoming August status report. Microsoft also has discussed with the TC the possibility of tracking changes to the documentation in a more systematic fashion. Specifically, Microsoft is exploring additional ways to present document version-to-version change information and expects to share a proposal with the TC in the near future. As reported in the previous Joint Status Report, some methods and interfaces were removed from the documentation before they were reviewed with the TC. The TC agreed that the removals were appropriate, subject to Microsoft providing additional information with respect to two documents that the methods removed involved local only machine processes.1 Microsoft expects to provide that additional information to the TC this week. In addition, Microsoft is looking at additional processes that it will put in place to enable the TC to review any future removals before they are made in the documentation. Lastly, Microsoft also has reviewed options for increasing the frequency with which it publishes updates to the documentation. Microsoft plans to provide additional details on the removal processes going forward, and its proposal for publishing documentation updates, at its regularly scheduled meeting with the TC on July 22, 2008, and thereafter with the Plaintiffs at a meeting set for July 30, 2008. A. Current Status of Microsoft s Progress in Resolving Technical Documentation Issues ( TDIs ) through June 30, 2008

In light of the volume and complexity of the new technical documentation, it is inevitable that additional TDIs will emerge in the newly rewritten documentation. As part of its analysis,
1

For one removed method, it is possible that the method could be used over the wire in Vista although that was not its intended behavior. With Vista SP1 Microsoft made this method local only as it originally intended. Thus, Microsoft plans to reference this method in an appropriate fashion in the documentation.

2

the TC is identifying TDIs in the new Online Build documentation according to the three priority levels that were described in the March 6, 2007 Joint Status Report. The current status of TDIs identified in rewritten documentation through June 30, 2008, is noted in the chart below. The total number of TDIs spans the entire range of rewritten MCPP documentation as well as some of the overview materials and should be considered in the context of more than 20,000 pages of MCPP technical documentation.

New Documentation TDIs

As of 5/31/2008

Period Ended 6/30/2008

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 Licensees2 Identified this period
2

122

110 49 183 168 115 290 68 55 101 346 219 574 609 451 913

237

88

447

755

18

In most cases, licensees do not open TDIs themselves. Licensees generally ask Microsoft questions about the documentation. Most questions do not result in any TDIs. In some cases, questions from licensees result in a TDI being filed by the Microsoft employees involved in answering the licensees questions. In these circumstances, Microsoft categorizes the TDI as a licensee TDI.

3

Closed this period Licensees Outstanding TDIs Identified by TC in Overview/Reference Materials Identified this period Closed this period Overview Outstanding TDIs Identified by TC in System Documents Identified this Period Closed this Period System Outstanding Total Outstanding II. Technical Documentation Testing A. Protocol Test Suite

12

11 19

55

24 47 32

7 1276

128 0 135 1673

Since the previous Status Report, Microsoft has continued its efforts to test the newly rewritten protocol documentation. Microsoft finished its testing on Cluster 6, during which Microsoft completed test passes on 39 documents. As is the normal practice, Microsoft and the TC have scheduled a meeting for July 22, 2008, to review the results of this Cluster. Microsoft is continuing the testing of Cluster 7, which will be complete by September 30, 2008. 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 one interoperability lab with an implementer scheduled for July 2008 and another interoperability lab scheduled for September 2008.

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C.

Plug-fests

As Microsoft previously reported, it held a file-sharing plug-fest during the first week of June 2008. This event was the largest thus far, with Apple, Inc., SAMBA, SNIA, Sun Microsystems, Inc., Blue Coat Systems, Inc., EMC Corporation, Isilon Systems, Inc., and NetApp all in attendance. Microsoft is planning a Media Streaming plug-fest for October 2008 and an Active Directory plug-fest for January 2009. 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. Approximately 800 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 320 product team engineers and program managers are actively involved in the creation and review of the technical content of the documentation. There are over 25 full-time employees and approximately 45 contingent staff working as technical writers, editors, and production technicians. Additionally, as the protocol testing effort continues, approximately 40 full-time employees and approximately 400 contingent and vendor staff work as software test designers, test engineers, and test architects. Significant attention to 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. IV. Windows Vista and XP Related Matters The TC has identified an issue related to how user defaults and icons are displayed when the same default is first set using Set User Defaults and then set using Set Program Access and 5

Defaults. Microsoft will discuss the issue with the Plaintiffs and the TC during a regularly scheduled meeting on July 30, 2008.

Dated: July 15, 2008

Respectfully submitted, FOR DEFENDANT MICROSOFT CORPORATION /s/ CHARLES F. RULE CHARLES F. RULE (DC BAR No. 370818) JONATHAN S. KANTER (DC BAR No. 473286) Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP 1201 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20004 [phone] BRADFORD L. SMITH MARY SNAPP DAVID A. HEINER, JR. Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052 [phone] STEVE L. HOLLEY RICHARD C. PEPPERMAN II Sullivan & Cromwell LLP 125 Broad Street New York, NY 10004 [phone]

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