Marcia - 6:17 am on Apr 25, 2002 (gmt 0)

After denials, Gates finally admitted in his testimony April 24th that it might be possible to create a modified version of Windows for personal computers.

The nine litigating states want the software giant to provide a basic version of Windows, without applications such as the browser Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, so that computer makers can install rivals' software.

According to the report in Financial Times [news.ft.com] some stripped-down versions of the software are already in place.

It's an interesting possibility, looking toward some plateau of equalization, in view of the ongoing woes developers have creating cross-browser compatible web sites, difficult enough without users being force-fed browser updates.