1.   Big PC makers such as Compaq report that many corporate customers want to keep the old version of Windows on PCs they plan to buy later this year.

2.   Big makers of small computers who license Windows from Microsoft at well below retail prices say they must force-feed their customers to guard against piracy.

3.   Both had sold bonds for the big maker of consumer electronics.

4.   After all, the personal computer business seemed to belong increasingly to the big PC makers, buying chips by the boatful and cutting costs with ruthless efficiency.

5.   Broadcom, based in Irvine, Calif., is a big maker of chips for cable modems and digital set-top boxes.

6.   But Michael C. Ruettgers, chairman of EMC Corp., the big maker of computer storage systems, said he thought the economy was mixed.

7.   But most big PC makers may still be wary of making demands on Microsoft, which provides the operating system for nearly every new PC.

8.   Consider the example of Nortel Networks, the big Canadian maker of equipment for wireless networks.

9.   European earnings were broadly reflected by other big chemical makers in the United States.

10.   European earnings were broadly reflected by other big chemical makers across the Atlantic.