Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 5801012

Microsoft and Sun Microsystems this week announced an agreement under which Sun will offer the MSN Toolbar to anyone who downloads Sun's Java Runtime Environment.

"The deal will allow Internet Explorer users who download the JRE to access Windows Live Search, Hotmail and Messenger with a single mouse click," writes ChannelWeb's Kevin McLaughlin. "While not exactly earth-shattering, this type of cooperation would have been unimaginable prior to Microsoft and Sun's 2004 interoperability pact, when the relationship was defined by visceral loathing..."

"Until today, JRE also piggybacked Google's browser toolbar," notes The Register's Cade Metz. "But as it makes room for Redmond, Sun has divorced the Mountain View ad broker."

"Sun reckons Java platform is on 91 per cent of Internet-connected PCs, and says its Java Runtime Environment is downloaded tens of millions times every month," writes The Inquirer's Paul Hales.

More here from InformationWeek ... more here from InternetNews ... more here from TechFlash ... more here from TG Daily ... more here from Reuters ... more here from ZDNet ... more here from Geek.com ... and the press release is here.