| Sumario: | To hear the voice of the new, reformed Microsoft Corporation, the one that no longer acts like a bullying monopolist but like a responsible industry leader devoted to the public good, talk to Brad Smith, its general counsel. Microsoft called a truce with Sun Microsystems, and announced that the two would settle their pending litigation and make their software work together. Two weeks later, Microsoft made peace with InterTrust Technologies, another company that had been at war with Microsoft over contested technology patents. Microsoft is not only settling law suits, but turning companies that it has not even offended into new allies. If Microsoft can demonstrate convincingly that it is willing to share the protocols that make other software applications work with Windows, Microsoft's ubiquitous computer operating system, it has a better chance of persuading the European Commission that it should still be allowed to bundle applications such as a media player into future versions of Windows. Besides Linux, one of its biggest challengers today is Google, the currently dominant Internet-search company. Microsoft would, of course, prefer that search, like all other vital functions, becomes a part of Windows, thus helping to maintain Microsoft's dominance in the long term.
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