Other highly successful firms with similar cultural aspects from the same period include Southwest Airlines and Microsoft.

Infosys has 16,000 workers in Bangalore, with customers that include Microsoft.

The Washington Alliance has already organized a small number of employees at companies that include Microsoft and Amazon.com.

Other major corporate sponsors include Microsoft and Pepsico, this official said.

Since the industry has lots of energy and creativity outside Microsoft, people naturally are forming alliances that don't include Microsoft.

The alliance members, which include Microsoft, may not easily elicit sympathy.

Notable absences from the community include Microsoft and Apple.

The Dow Jones industrial average, which includes Microsoft among its 30 components, rose 131.37 points, or 1.26 percent, to 10,566.21.

Similar efforts for other markets included Microsoft at Home and Cablesoft.

About 30 personal computer makers said they would include Microsoft's new Windows 3.0 with computers they sell.