Titans like Sun, Microsoft and IBM are already pursuing the business, treating digital ID as part of software security.
Yet Sun and Microsoft are not as different as they might seem.
E-speak, along with similar pursuits by several of HP's rivals, including Sun and Microsoft, signals a basic change in how business gets done on the Internet.
The consortium was launched last September by Sun, Microsoft's arch-rival.
This would enable Sun to distribute Microsoft-independent content to Google's users, making its arch-rival redundant for many computer users.
One assumes the founders and backers of Apple, Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Dell, Oracle, Cisco, Palm, Yahoo and Google passed on it, too.
But soon afterward, Sun noticed that Microsoft had added extensions of Java specifically for Windows machines, which could prevent Java programs written for Windows from being run anywhere else.
Sun Microsystems, Microsoft's bitter nemesis, stoked the worries and in early summer began contacting companies to pitch the idea of "federating" to create a nonproprietary alternative to Passport, letting their sites link up more easily without Microsoft as middleman.
Sun Microsystems invented the Java language and started a mass exodus of computer programming talent away from Microsoft toward Sun.
Many of America's best performers, such as Microsoft or Sun MicroSystems, did not exist 30 years ago.
The minicomputer people barely saw Sun, Dell, Microsoft et al. coming, and when they did they didn't believe it.
Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Lucent Technologies, and other players all are jockeying to be the platform of choice for appliance computing.
It was one of the first to market, but has recently been competing with outfits like IBM, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems.
In other words, with the notable exceptions of Microsoft and Sun Microsystems, the industry is pushing Linux for use in corporate computing.
Jordan also expanded alliances with Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Cisco, Dell and EMC.
So the desire for success in the high-stakes consumer market will drive many companies like Microsoft, Sun and Cisco into a plug-and-play business model.
Kaminsky's bug, meanwhile, sent tech companies such as Cisco, Microsoft and Sun Microsystems scrambling to release fixes and Internet service providers racing to implement them.
Sun's OpenOffice.org project should be ready by October and will not only give users access to open-source code but will also provide filters to allow Sun customers to use Microsoft's rival products.
More importantly, Microsoft and Sun have a new common enemy: Linux, an operating system that competes with Windows and with Sun's Solaris but which, unlike the other two, is written by volunteers and shared freely among all who want to download and use it.
To be sure, some companies--notably cable giant TCI--have wavered in their commitment to Windows CE. (After originally going with Microsoft, TCI is exploring other options, including operating systems from Sun and Sony.) But Microsoft will likely succeed because it is doing what it has always done best--leveraging its desktop monopoly into other markets.
He added that additional cost savings can be made by swapping out Microsoft Office for Sun's newly acquired Star Office technology.
They also must be able to run over a number of different operating systems, such as Qualcomm 's Brew, Sun Microsystems' Java and Microsoft 's Windows Mobile.
Other cable companies like Cablevision and Time Warner have also inked deals with Sun for using Java OS. Sun's rivals include Microsoft's Windows CE, OpenTV, and Power TV from Scientific Atlanta.
To add to the menace, the new Java programming language, developed by another Microsoft enemy, Sun Microsystems, had the potential to create applications programmes that could be pulled down from servers linked to the Internet and would run on any operating system.
While AMDwould love to have some heavyweights visibly on its side--as Netscape had Sun and Apple during the Microsoft antitrust trial--it may have to settle for finding a pattern of documentary evidence while digging through the hard drives of an estimated 800 people at 37 companies, plus whatever Intel coughs up.
Sun's landmark October 1997 lawsuit charged Microsoft with copyright infringement and breach of contract for failing to maintain compatibility with Sun's version of Java.
Soon, Sun won a preliminary injunction forbidding Microsoft from distributing incompatible versions of the language.
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