Microsoft Case Causes Little Stir : Reaction: Industry executives in Orange County see few changes from settlement of charges against software giant.

Computer industry executives in Orange County say they do not forecast big changes resulting from Microsoft Corp.’s agreement to settle antitrust charges by adjusting the way it sells operating systems to personal computer makers.

Safi Qureshey, chairman of AST Research in Irvine, a leading PC manufacturer, summed up his feelings on Microsoft’s signing of a consent decree with the Justice Department with one word: relief.

“There’s a sense of relief that it is over,” he said Monday.

But Shannon Jenkins, chief executive at TouchStone Software Corp. in Huntington Beach, said she “didn’t hear anything encouraging” in news reports following the agreement reached Friday.

Under the accord, Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, agreed to end certain sales practices, such as charging computer makers a lower price for its operating system based on each machine they sell regardless of whether Microsoft software was actually installed.

Most industry watchers generally agree the settlement will not have a big immediate impact on PC makers or on their customers, given the limited nature of the settlement and Microsoft’s dominance of the software industry--it controls 85% of the market.

Qureshey said he believes only 1% of his customers currently have a serious interest in outfitting their computers with an operating system other than those made by Seattle-based Microsoft. As such, Qureshey said he does not see any significant change in his business.

But on a less tangible level, Qureshey said he viewed the settlement as positive because it removes a “potential black cloud” that may have depressed sales for his company and for the entire marketplace.

Qureshey also said he was happy that the dispute did not go to trial because if it had, AST would likely have been asked by the government to turn over documents on its business relationship with Microsoft.

AST--the world’s fifth-largest personal computer maker--had already been required to provide Justice officials with some information, Qureshey said. He declined to elaborate.

Software makers like TouchStone criticized the accord, saying it had hoped Microsoft would be forced, among other things, to make faster and fuller disclosures to the entire industry about changes to its operating system, which is critical to rival software publishers because they must design products so they’re compatible with them.

For example, TouchStone’s Jenkins said that her firm--with about $5 million in annual sales and 35 employees--recently bailed out of an agreement to develop an Internet-related software product because of concerns that Microsoft could soon come out with its own software that could have devoured it.

“I was hoping for some powerful results from what the Justice Department was doing,” Jenkins said. “I’m fairly disappointed.”

David Hanna, chairman of State of the Art Inc., an Irvine-based maker of accounting software that does not directly compete with Microsoft, said he expects the settlement to be positive for his company in the long run.

Because the accord calls for less restrictive non-disclosure agreements, Hanna says that will enable his company to have a more open relationship with Microsoft.

In the same vein, Ron Siede , director of marketing for Kingston Technology, said the settlement may indirectly give a boost to his company.

Kingston, based in Fountain Valley, makes hardware that upgrades computer memory. Siede said he believes the settlement will push the market to come out with new software faster than before.