As far as I can read into the HTTP RFC, the
Accept-Language HTTP header should be populated with the value the user has
set for language preference in the browser settings whether the request is
from the browser itself or the VM (URL or URLConnection classes).

The MS VM doesn't do this. You could set your browser preference to French
(fr) and regular HTTP requests from the browser would set the
Accept-Language header to "fr" as expected. However, if an applet under the
MS VM uses the URL or URLConnection classes the Accept-Language header is
set to the locale of the operating system. In essence the browser's
language preference is ignored. This is not the correct behavior. The
Netscape browsers (4.78 and under - I haven't looked at 6.x yet) and Opera
do the right thing. IE never has done the right thing under Windows.

The reason this is important is that a machine might have an English os
installed. But a foreign speaker might use the system and set the browser
to their language choice. If both the browser and the VM do not use the
same language, there can be issues.

In our case if you set your language preference to French (fr) when you try
our "palm" example I sent earlier. You should hear French instead of the
default English. This works everywhere but on IE under Windows. (IE on the
Mac does the right thing - go figure).