The Liberty Alliance Grows Again 111
sempf writes "The Liberty Alliance, a Sun-backed open-specification alternative to the Microsoft platform's Passport system, has added two very powerful members, Oracle and Intel. Now over 150 members, one wonders at the future of a world where we have two single sign-on systems. With the three big IM platforms joining forces, is the identity standard of the world going to be Microsoft, or Sun? Is this going to be the next Browser War?"
No. (Score:5, Insightful)
Single Sign In (Score:4, Insightful)
who cares? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sign-on War (Score:5, Insightful)
Honestly, site-specific sign-on systems are easy to develop and most e-tailers have a powerful motive to offer their customers as many choices as possible. This is stark contrast to the one-or-the-other image a "war" connotes.
How universal can it be? (Score:5, Insightful)
Nokia is on board [nokia.com] with this, and as more and more of my personal information gets concentrated on my phone I'll probably end up using it.
Eventually we'll probably all have a digital "passport" of some kind - and much better this way than the Microsoft way - but it's still a bit creepy.
Microsoft or Sun? No... (Score:5, Insightful)
With, as you point out, over 150 member companies the Liberty Alliance is scarcely just "Sun".
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
My bet is on... (Score:2, Insightful)
Summary is misleading (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm just waiting for Google to offer a Messenger service, using a gMail account as a login. I think they could bring great things to the IM market, especially if the based an offering on an OSS project like Jabber, for which other IM software providers could then incorporate support.
Passport is already tied closely to Messenger and Windows XP in particular, I don't see the opposition gaining ground without going the same way.
Re:How about this... (Score:1, Insightful)
So I get a multiplatform tool that helps me make people choose certain usernames/passwords on my website.
How does that fix the problem of said people having dozens of usernames/passwords on multiple websites?
Re:Sign-on War (Score:3, Insightful)
Neither? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:How about this... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:who cares? (Score:3, Insightful)
Let users choose for themselves. But having one password and links to all the services I log into, stored by the company who almost only ever make news when another of their security vulnerabilites is discoverd, or they get sued over improper business practises, or they're trying to lie themselves out of loosing more market share, that's not for me.
Re:Summary is misleading (Score:4, Insightful)
Note that I did NOT say IM convergence. I DID say they are joining forces. They are. Despite all of the vitrol, reality has forced them to hold hands and play nice. I'm sure the ability to send a message from one platform to another using a common P2P platform is not far off, despite your claims.
How exactly is Google making a gMail messenger any different from MSN mesenger, or Yahoo messenger? All great brands, all good technology. Will it be better because you like Google more? Don't get me wrong, I like Google too, but how will a fourth standard make it any better?
Re:Neither? (Score:3, Insightful)
That's what the Liberty Alliance is. It's a way to share authentication info without one company controlling it all. RTFA.