With friends like Compaq, Microsoft execs have got to be wondering, who needs enemies on the witness stand? Once again, on Thursday, Feb. 18, the only company willing to come to Microsoft's defense in the antitrust trial ended up on the defensive itself. Compaq senior vice-president John Rose spent the day under sharp cross-examination, trying to fend off a slide-show-full of surprises from the government's lead trial lawyer, David Boies. His line of attack: Forget the warm business relationship between Compaq and Microsoft. Compaq really is afraid of Microsoft, he asserted.

With memos, E-mails, and Compaq's own internal slides, Boise highlighted a series of communications at Compaq that made Microsoft out to be the bully. Confidential 1993 slides from the computer maker listed possible "retaliations" Microsoft could attempt if Compaq were to implement a software package from GO Corp., a small startup computer company. The GO deal was for the software used in hand-held devices called "personal digital assistants." But the deal eventually fell through.

The confidential slides, entitled "Microsoft Meeting Preparation," included one with the headline: "Judgment: How retaliatory would they get?" It showed a list of hypothetical comebacks that Microsoft might employ if Compaq signed the deal with GO. They included "tone toward Compaq in press and with customers" and "Selection and elevation of other OEMs [computer makers] as leaders." Rose insisted, however, that Compaq never signed with GO computers -- not because of Microsoft intimidation -- but because Compaq wanted "seamless" compatibility with other PCs.

EXCLUSIVITY? Boies zeroed in on Compaq's initial decision to keep Microsoft's Internet Explorer icon off its start-up screens in favor of Netscape Navigator's icon. Under pressure from Microsoft, Compaq eventually agreed to put the Microsoft browser icon on its welcome screen in 1996 while dropping the Netscape Navigator icon. Boies pointed to E-mails between Compaq employees in 1996, one of which read: "Microsoft will be expecting an exclusive arrangement that would prevent us from putting Netscape on the desktop." Rose claimed he knew nothing about the exclusive agreement.

At the conclusion of the day's testimony, Boies told reporters that whenever Compaq began to use a competitor's product, Microsoft put pressure on Compaq to stop. A spokesmen for Microsoft said the government is "groping and grasping" for anything relating to "the M word," that is, monopoly. But the only solace in this day of testimony was that Compaq was on the hot seat for a change, and not Microsoft.

By Mica Schneider in Washington