Mozilla has been aware of that hesitation long enough to have just released its long-in-development Persona sign-in service as a beta.

ENGADGET: Mozilla Persona sign-in launches in beta, skips the social networking ball and chain (video)

Salesforce.com has Force.com, a development platform that sits on top of its industrial-strength software-as-a-service infrastructure.

FORBES: Is Salesforce.com Wrong to Love Ruby?