Microsoft tried a new tactic in its antitrust trial on Dec. 9. Call it the Scottie-was-mean-to-me defense. In cross-examining government witness James Gosling, Microsoft lawyer Tom Burt attempted to portray Gosling's boss, Sun CEO Scott G. McNealy, as the big software bully.

Gosling, Sun's chief technical officer, was there to talk about the contentious collaboration between Sun and Microsoft over Sun's Java software that has collapsed into a separate civil suit between the companies. In the antitrust case, Microsoft has tried to show that McNealy and his cohorts did everything in their power to use Java as a weapon against Microsoft's Windows monopoly. But it's just as clear that Microsoft was scheming to subvert Java. There are no boy scouts in this pack.

To make his case against Sun, Burt marshalled a series of E-mails showing that Sun, Netscape, IBM, and others were ganging up on Microsoft. In one of the more colorful messages, he quoted Netscape Vice-President Marc Andreessen trying to rally support for an agreement between Netscape and Sun to collaborate on software that competes with Microsoft products. "Now is the time to strike together on this. Let's nail the bastards," Andreessen urged.

And Burt caught Gosling himself in a Machiavellian mode. In an E-mail to McNealy, Gosling said: "I'd want to work with Microsoft, but beat them at their own game....or at least give them the impression we're working with them."

OUT OF COMPLIANCE. Microsoft also showed that Sun treated its Java licensees unequally -- granting pardons to other companies that did not meet its compatibility standards but slapping Microsoft's wrist at every turn. Netscape, Microsoft asserts, has never fully complied with Sun's standards for creating Java software that allows developers to write their programs once to run on any computer. Yet Sun sued Microsoft last fall for noncompliance.

Burt even found an E-mail where Java compliance manager Carla Schroer urged her colleagues to treat all of the licensees equally. And, under pressure, Gosling agreed that fairness is a virtue. But he pointed out that while Netscape was trying to comply, "Microsoft said flatly that it never would."

In Gosling's written testimony, and with other evidence, the government has tried to prove that Microsoft illegally tied its browser to its Windows monopoly to neutralize Netscape's browser as a primary distribution channel for Sun's Java technology. Gosling testified that Microsoft left out key pieces in its version of Java, which it had licensed from Sun, to make it difficult for the technology on deliver on its "write once, run anywhere" promise -- something that would make Windows less important.

"A DEAL WITH SADDAM." During cross-examination Wednesday, Burt argued that other operating systems include Internet technologies, just like Windows does. His point seemed to be that the government has unfairly singled out Microsoft. Sun's Solaris operating system, Gosling conceded, includes a browser and other Internet access technologies, but he explained that, unlike in Windows, they're not integrated closely with the kernel, the heart of the operating system. That makes it relatively easier for computer users to substitute alternative products, he said.

Microsoft shared some other E-mail goodies from the depositions it has collected. One top Sun executive wrote to another: "No agreement with Netscape is worth the ink it's printed with. Go sign a deal with Saddam Hussein. It has a better chance of being honored." None of this did anything to shake Gosling from his basic line: Microsoft used its might to try to torpedo Java.

Gosling's testimony is expected to conclude on Thursday.

By Steve Hamm in Washington