Sun Microsystems this week won a key Java battle and is making waves in the Web services world with a new strategy: free software. Rival Microsoft said it will reinstate the ability to run Java programs in Windows XP. The reinstatement is a partial victory for Sun, which was stunned in April 2001 when Microsoft decided not to ship a Java virtual machine (JVM), instead adding a "download on demand" feature that Sun said in its antitrust suit violated settlement terms of an earlier Java legal dispute between the two companies. Microsoft plans to remove the download-on-demand option "to take an issue off the table with the current legal action by Sun," a Microsoft representative said, and therefore is including its JVM as the "best way to minimize any disruption" to customers. In other news, Sun decided to try a new strategy to chip away at Microsoft's lead in the Web services market. In an attempt to gain popularity among developers, the company is giving away a crucial piece of e-business software, technology that lies at the heart of its Web services strategy.