look out, microsoft

Google and Sun are about to hook up. Or at least that's the word out on the web - real details won't be available until 10:30 pacific time when the companies' respective CEOs take the stage at the Computer History Museum to announce the details of their new partnership.

This is huge news for Sun, who's been wandering into obsolescence for a few years now. Once a hard hitter in the area of servers and Unix/Linux machines, Sun also boasts inventing the Java programming language and is currently running an initiative to produce an open-source office suite to rival Microsoft's.

Speculation has focused on Google delivering a new version of the OpenOffice suite that will somehow be used and accessed through the web. Some feel this is the beginning in a new era of home computing technology, when applications and possibly even your operating system will be driven from the web.

Regardless of how this partnership changes the world of computing, it's got huge implications for the market. Until now, Google and Microsoft have been relegated relatively well to their respective spheres of influence. Despite Steve Balmer's rash claim that he would "f--ing kill Google", Microsoft has done little to challenge Google's supremacy over the web. Relying instead on their dominance in the entertainment (XBox) and PC application (Windows, Office) products, Microsoft has yet to hit hard at Google's base by diverting any significant percentage of the population away from Google's search engine.

If Google's partnership with Sun challenges Microsoft's PC app base, and it most certainly will, it could spell the first serious challenge to Microsoft since Apple.