Author clicks with virtual reality story of Microsoft trial.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

"World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies,'' by Ken Auletta (436 pages; Random House; $27.95).

One of the nicest things you can say about a nonfiction book is that reading it was just like being there _ even if that place was arguably one of the most historic antitrust trials of the 20th century.

Ken Auletta has accomplished that in World War 3.0: Microsoft and Its Enemies, a chronicle of the Justice Department's pursuit of Microsoft, the Redmond, Wash.-based software monolith that everyone loves to hate.

You may hate it too, but odds are you're still using its software: Microsoft's net income was $2.62 billion (yes, billion) for the most recent fiscal quarter ending Dec. 31, 2000.

The case isn't over, although it dropped off the front pages last year when, in April, U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson announced his finding that Microsoft violated antitrust laws. Two months later, the controversial Jackson ordered his remedy: a breakup of the company and restrictions on its actions for years to come. Oral arguments began and ended this week, with a final decision likely later this year.

Auletta writes the "Annals of Communications" column for The New Yorker magazine, has been covering the trial since its start, and detailed it in a gigantic 20,000-word article in August 1999. That article, deep as it was, didn't scratch the surface of what happened to Microsoft and why it happened.

The first inference drawn from this book is that Microsoft did itself in, not only with its aggressive behavior but also with its inability to admit to what the evidence _ most often corporate e-mail _ clearly pointed out.