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RIVAL SENDS MESSAGE TO GATES AT UCSD

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates told UCSD students that technology's future remains bright, particularly for new software applications.

In a speech at the University of California San Diego, one Microsoft rival tried to steal the spotlight.

Before the speech San Diego's Michael Robertson gave out over 1000 fliers in the campus auditorium. The fliers criticized the Seattle software giant and Gates in particular, focusing on everything from the company's market dominance to Gates' record as a philanthropist.

"When he comes to your hometown, you've got to let him know where he's at," said Robertson.

Robertson, formerly head of MP3.com, is chief executive of Lindows.com. Microsoft and Lindows.com are embroiled in a federal lawsuit over whether the Lindows.com name is too similar to Microsoft's Windows trademark. The case is scheduled to go to trial in December in Seattle.

If Gates, ranked by Forbes magazine as the world's richest man, was aware of Robertson's efforts to gain some attention, he didn't acknowledge them in his presentation.

Instead, Gates said despite the technology bust, new advances continue at a fast clip and "the really interesting software is the software that will be written in the next decade."

This isn't the first time Robertson has taken a swipe at Microsoft. This winter, he emerged as the mystery mastermind behind a contest that offered $200,000 to anyone who successfully hacked into Mircosoft's Xbox video game console.

Lindows.com sells a computer operating system that competes with Microsoft's Windows operating system. The system is based on Linux, a so-called open source operating system that's freely distributed, modified and improved by unaffiliated groups of programmers.

Linux supporters claim that the market dominance of Windows, the operating system used on more than 90 percent of personal computers, gives Microsoft unfair control of the market.

Robertson has taken on giants before. At MP3.com, he fought a copyright battle with Universal Music Group, a division of Vivendi Universal, in federal court. He lost. Vivendi-Universal later bought MP3.com, and Robertson left to start Lindows.com.

Robertson denied that yesterday's fliers were a publicity stunt for his new venture, which is a start-up that employs 51 people. But it was unclear whether his message was getting through. One student folded the flier into a boat, origami style.