And in other news: Microsoft and Java; AOL and Netscape; Windows to Mac

Microsoft drops Java from IE for Mac, Unix Following a judge's ruling, Microsoft announced it will strip its Java virtual machine out of Internet Explorer for the Mac and for Unix systems. A letter stated: "Internet Explorer 4.x for the Macintosh and for Unix will be re-released without a Microsoft Java Virtual Machine. Instead, users will be directed to the virtual machine already available on the host operating systems."

AOL to acquire Netscape?"America Online is in talks to acquire Netscape Communications in a stock swap and a buyout could be announced this week."

Giving up on Windows Remember how awhile back, several columnists in the media wrote to say how they were reluctantly giving up on the Macs to join their colleagues in the Windows world? Well, one of these columnists, Douglas Rushkoff, has returned. He is now using an iMac and is happy to be back. He writes: "Now, two years and three Windows operating systems later, I am finally admitting defeat. I understand Windows as well as most technical-support personnel. I can edit a config.sys file and delete bad lines in an autoexec.bat with the best of them. I can partition a hard drive in FAT32, manually configure a dialup adapter and scour my systems folder for obsolete DLL's. But why would I want to?"