Sun to launch digital ID, may take on Microsoft

SAN FRANCISCO: Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc., said it would

announce a "digital identity" initiative on Wednesday, a move that

appeared to take aim at an old foe - Microsoft Corp - and the software giant's

Passport system for Internet commerce.

Sun said in a statement on Tuesday that Scott McNealy, chief executive and

chairman, would unveil the initiative "surrounding digital identity

solutions" with an alliance of industry partners in a Wednesday morning

conference call.

A Sun spokeswoman declined to elaborate ahead of the call, but the company

has said it would take on Microsoft in this market, seen as key to making the

Internet easier to use.

Microsoft's Passport system seeks to speed Web commerce by keeping files of

sensitive data on users so that a Passport user signed into the system no longer

has to re-enter often-used information and passwords.

McNealy, who has been among the most outspoken critics of Microsoft's

attempts to build new services from the strength of its alleged monopoly

position in computer operating systems, has said Microsoft should not keep such

data.

"There will be an alternative to this. Soon. But not soon enough,"

McNealy told a conference in Aspen, Colorado in late August in a speech that

criticized Microsoft's attempt to expand onto the Internet.

At issue in part is the degree to which the organization holding personal

data could use it, where the data would be held and the security of the personal

information. Sun markets its Java Internet-software as the backbone of a system

to rival Microsoft infrastructure software on the Web.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.