Many of the largest IT vendors declined to comment Thursday on a federal appeals court ruling in Microsoft's antitrust case

Many of the largest IT vendors declined to comment Thursday on a federal appeals court ruling in Microsoft's antitrust case, although a few industry trade groups and smaller IT firms were eager to talk about how the ruling might affect the technology industry moving forward. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit sent back to a lower court U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson's verdict in the government's landmark antitrust case against Microsoft. The court vacated Jackson's order that the company should be broken in two parts to curb its monopolistic behavior, but upheld the finding that Microsoft illegally tried to maintain a monopoly in the market for PC operating systems. Microsoft rivals including database vendor Oracle Corp. and media giant AOL Time Warner Inc. declined to comment on the decision, although they have been vocal about the proceedings until now. Similarly, Microsoft partners including Dell Computer Corp., Compaq Computer Corp. and Hewlett-Packard Co. also refused to voice their opinion. Sun Microsystems Inc., one of Microsoft's most vociferous opponents, was among the few large vendors that decided to offer comment. "As the case is turned over to the District Court, we hope that the Court will act decisively to ensure that Microsoft's illegal activity -- and the harm that it has done to the industry and to consumers -- is brought to an end forcefully and permanently," Sun said. Microsoft rival Red Hat Inc., which distributes a version the Linux operating system, called the ruling a victory for open source, pointing in particular to the fact that Microsoft remains branded a monopoly. The Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), which has backed Microsoft in the case, applauded the ruling, saying that it supports its belief that "preserving the right of a company to add features to their products is the central issue in this case." By allowing companies like Microsoft to bundle features with existing software, consumers are able to receive more value from a single product rather than having to piece applications together themselves, ACT said. The group cautioned the District Court to consider carefully what remedies it applies to curb Microsoft's behavior. Entrepreneurship could be damaged by an industry wrapped up in legal and political infighting, ACT said. Conversely, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), whose members include Microsoft rivals Oracle, Sun and AOL, as well as Yahoo Inc. and Nokia Corp., maintained that upholding the monopoly charge against Microsoft was the key point in the ruling.