High-end computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc. announced on Wednesday a free software initiative aimed at undercutting Microsoft Corp. in the battle to set the standards of the next-generation Internet. The battleground between Sun and Microsoft's .NET initiative is the layer of software that will form the backbone of the next generation Internet, and Sun will give away a key part, called an application server, that runs on Microsoft systems as well as the hit operating system, Linux.

Sun and Microsoft see a world of "Web services" in which clever software anticipates users' needs, such as automatically ordering parts for a factory that is running low or finding directions to an appointment listed in a business person's calendar. For that to happen, a layer of backbone software must stitch together computers that run operating systems and translate data between applications. Sun has a good start, because its Java platform runs programs while sitting on top of many operating systems, including Windows, while Windows programs run only on Windows.