Marking a second plunge into world of Linux, a free, collaboratively developed operating system, the Sun machines will be based on cheap commodity parts and ship in a few quarters, Vice President John Loiacono said in an interview.

Sun's announcement came at the start of a user conference, SunNetwork, beginning Wednesday in San Francisco.

Sun is known for its million-dollar machines that manage networks and a fast, Internet-fueled rise to prominence that the dot-com bust spoiled, sending Sun's stock down more than 90 percent from its 2000 high.

It has guaranteed a market for its big computers by establishing its operating system, Solaris, as a favorite among developers, and it expects to sell even more expensive machines and sophisticated software as parts of system packages including commodity Linux-based desktops.

Some analysts believe Sun could be the victim of its own success as its Linux machines steal market from its high-end systems, but Sun argues Linux is a low-end complement to Solaris and keeps customers out of the Microsoft camp.

"The primary motivator for enterprise customers (to buy Sun Linux desktops) will be reduction in costs and freedom from Microsoft," Sun said in a statement on the user conference.

"Hardware costs over the last 10 years have gone through the floor but software costs have gone up," Loiacono added. Microsoft's lucrative position as the vendor of Windows, which runs nearly every PC, has also given it clout in designing networks that Sun sees as a long term threat.

Sun will begin by marketing the Linux desktop machine as a relatively stripped-down machine, rather than a multimedia marvel, to markets such as corporate call centers, government and schools, Loiacono said.

Sun recently launched a low-end Linux server computer but has been seen as a reluctant convert to the collaboratively developed free operating system.

Linux is positioned as an alternative to both Microsoft's Windows and typical corporate Unix-based operating systems, like Sun's Solaris, sparking strong debate over which market Linux will hurt most.

Sun's broader strategy, dubbed N1 and also a topic of the user conference, is to link together computer networks with sophisticated software based on its Java platform, that is generally considered an alternative to Microsoft's networking strategy called .Net, pronounced "dot-net." (Reuters)