Gates testifies in $1B lawsuit against Microsoft

Microsoft's Bill Gates says the run-up to the company's Windows 95 rollout was a challenging dash and led to several last-minute changes to technical features.

Gates is testifying in a $1 billion antitrust lawsuit accusing the software maker of duping Novell Inc. into thinking it would include that company's WordPerfect writing program in Windows 95.

Gates says Microsoft dumped a feature that would have supported WordPerfect because he feared it would crash Windows.

Gates also says that by 1994, WordPerfect's market share was already declining, while Microsoft's own Word program was gaining ground.

Novell claims it was tricked and later had to sell WordPerfect for a $1.2 billion loss.

Gates is Microsoft's first witness Monday in the federal trial in Salt Lake City.