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Microsoft To Drop Java Support In Mac And Unix IE
[8:24 AM] Microsoft has announced that it plans to "support" Java on the Mac and Unix by dropping its own implementation of the Java engine from the Mac and Unix versions of Internet Explorer. In a written statement, Microsoft said:

"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."

This events come at a time when the company is being hammered on all sides by the legal system and by rumored merger announcements from some if its biggest competitors. On Friday, a ruling from the judge in it's trial for violating the terms of its Java contract with Sun Microsystems said the company had to immediately offer support for Sun's Java standards. Currently the company only supports its own implementation of Java in Internet Explorer. Its own implementation has been altered in order to take advantage of the OS better and to make sure that Java code written for it is not compatible with Java on other systems.

The Mac Observer Spin: This marks a couple of departures for the company. This first is a departure from what a statement released on Friday that said the company said it would support Java on all platforms. At the time it did not define support.

The other departure is much more important in that for the first time Microsoft is saying it would support a technology by allowing their products to make use of 3rd part technologies. This is significant in many different ways. It could be an attempt to show Judge Jackson in the antitrust trial that Microsoft can play by the rules. It could also be an attempt to slap the ruling in the face. In reality it is the way that Microsoft should have been behaving all along.