RALEIGH — If you order products on the Internet, it could be cheaper than buying them at the store. Plus, an Internet company tries to get more Americans online and a high-tech Triangle company hits pay dirt. WRAL OnLine reporterTom Lawrencehas details in this TechTalk digest.

Triangle Companies Turn "Red" Into Green A couple of Triangle companies have struck it big.Red Hat Softwarein Durham has struck a deal with Intel, Netscape and a couple of venture capital outfits.

Red Hat develops software for the Linux operating system. Very popular, Linux is much like Unix but it's free to developers.

"Rainbow Six"from Tom Clancy'sRed Storm Entertainmentis making a big splash. Rainbow Six is getting rave reviews from gamer magazines, USA Today and retailers.

The action game, based on an international anti-terrorist group, is touted as one of the hottest new games and is selling well. Bolstered by a national ad campaign and the success of Clancy's best selling novel of the same name, Rainbow Six could be the most popular game yet to come out of the Triangle.

IMagic Inks Deal with AOL Another local group that's making news is Morrisville'sInteractive Magic. The company just inked a deal with AOL to put its new "Raider Wars" online. The game will be the first in a series to be launched for AOL online players.

AOL 4.0 Offers New Features America Online has new software out calledAOL 4.0which offers new features.

The toolbar is different, allowing back and forward scrolling. There's a helpful drop down history menu. E-mail is more fun with color backgrounds, lots of fonts and colorful text. You also get spell check.

You'll be getting AOL 4.0 CD-ROMs in newspapers, magazines, cereal boxes and even on music CDs. Be ready for the onslaught!

Shopping Minus Sales Tax If you buy merchandise on the Internet you can forget sales taxes. The Senate approved a moratorium on taxing Internet sales. President Clinton backs the ban and the House has already approved it.

States say they will lose a lot of money as Internet sales increase from about $5 billion this year to $25 billion by 2002.