Ladies and gentlemen, we are officially at DEFCON 1. The Department of Justice announced today that peace talks with Microsoft had broken down, and are not expected to resume. Microsoft will be shipping Windows 98 to manufacturers on Monday, as the DoJ scrambles to file an antitrust lawsuit intended to halt it. Read all about it in Computer Reseller News.

Apparently it was Microsoft who walked away from the table, once the DoJ made the hardline demand that Internet Explorer be stripped out of Windows 98. Oooooo! Instant negotiations breakdown. To make matters worse, Justice reportedly demanded that Microsoft ship Netscape Navigator with Windows 98-- a request that Microsoft likens to "asking Coke to include two cans of Pepsi in every sixpack." Microsoft continues to insist that Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Windows operating system, and removing it is well-nigh impossble-- not to mention, infringing on their right to "innovate."

Neither Justice nor the 20 or so states interested in suing Microsoft have confirmed that they plan to file suit on Monday, but those demands seem to reveal a DoJ itching for a fight. That's a dramatically different DoJ than we've been seeing throughout the "Redmond Justice" ordeal. It's a DoJ with something to prove-- one that perhaps realizes just how soft they've been playing things with Microsoft, who's just been laughing at them the whole time. (Take, for instance, the unbootable Windows 95 "compliance" with Judge Jackson's preliminary injunction.) From AtAT's perspective, while we realize that the effects of several long and drawn-out lawsuits could dramatically affect the entire computer industry, you'll forgive us for taking a certain selfish glee in realizing that we'll likely have plenty of plot material for months and months to come. Who needs writers when you've got Microsoft?

With all the controversy surrounding the iMac, with all the concerns that it might just be "too different," we at AtAT have been anxiously counting down the ninety days until the system is actually shipping, so we can see if those concerns are valid or not. As it turns out, though, we may not have to wait that long to see if the iMac will be a sales winner. A Mac OS Rumors source claims that, according to a senior Apple engineer, CompUSA already has seventy thousand pre-orders for Apple's upcoming consumer machine.

Seventy thousand. Look at that in numerical notation: 70,000. That's seventy thousand pre-orders for a computer that was unveiled a week and a half ago, which has had zero actual advertising, isn't even in production yet, and won't be available for about three months. Is this possible? We can't vouch for the legitimacy of the claim, but if it's true, the possibilities boggle the mind. Could the world be ready (nay, yearning) for a simple computer? Is the world not as married to Microsoft as we all think? And most importantly of all, can the fact that a computer lights up when you turn it on overcome the fact that it has no floppy drive?

Astounding. If these alleged seventy thousand advance orders are any indication of the explosion that'll happen once the iMac becomes available and Apple (hopefully) advertises the bejeezus out of it, the sky's the limit. Best case scenario: Hellooooo, market share. Here's hoping that Apple can build them fast enough to keep up with people buying them.

Of course, while the iMac prepares to revolutionize the home computer market, what of the Apple Media Player/Columbus? It appears that the set-top box version of this mysterious Apple project is now officially dead, despite Apple Recon's long-fought battle to prevent it from being "Steved." That means we won't be seeing an Apple-branded unit that plugs into the TV set/stereo system and lets you play DVD's and enhanced CD's.

Here's the thing: we've never fully understood Apple Recon's rabid insistence that a consumer-level set-top box is the key to Apple's salvation. Sure, if it caught on, it might increase Apple's mind share and it might convince the AMP users to buy a Mac when they're ready for a real computer, but it seems like such a long shot to us. (Remember the Pippin?) Then again, we've never really understood Apple Recon very much at all, for the most part; especially since lately they appear to be incapable of stating anything without putting it in code. Seriously, read Apple Recon for a while and Mac the Knife reads as clearly as a kid's menu at Denny's. Ah, whatever.