The kinder, gentler face that Microsoft put on after last year's landmark court decision to split up the company seems to have all but disappeared, as the company has stepped up its software bundling efforts and its campaign against Linux. The latest signs of the Microsoft of old can be seen in the aggressive negotiations the company is conducting with AOL Time Warner Inc. to bundle the AOL online service client with the forthcoming Windows XP operating system. Intensifying the conflict, Microsoft last week announced it will include its real-time communications technology, Windows Messenger, in Windows XP. While Windows Messenger goes far beyond pure instant messaging, it does in some ways take direct aim at rival AOL. These latest actions seemed to indicate that the Redmond, Wash., company is confident the imminent ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals will go in its favor. Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, talking after launching Office XP two weeks ago, said that Linux was a "cancer that attaches itself in an intellectual property sense to everything it touches." His comments followed similar attacks by Microsoft executives Craig Mundie and Jim Allchin.