While Novell's selector matches the features of CardSpace, it is unique in that Novell's technology can support multiple identity card stores, whereas the Microsoft technology will support only one.

During a demo of the software at last week's Brainshare conference, Novell used a general user identity card running on a Macintosh to access a Web site, browse items and store them in a shopping cart. The user signed off and then logged onto a separate Linux desktop, accessed the same Web site, and completed the transaction by using the Linux-based InfoCard Selector to pick an identity card from the card store on the user's cell phone, which communicated with the Linux desktop using Bluetooth.

The demo can be accessed (Slide the video player's toggle to the 40-minute mark to see the demo.)

While identity cards are encrypted in the card store on devices or desktops, the beauty of the InfoCard technology is its security. Identity data -- which in the Novell transaction demo is a credit card number -- is held by a third-party called an identity provider. The third-party -- in the Novell example it was American Express -- validates that the user has the funds to complete the transaction and sends that validation via secure token to the Web site, called the requesting party, which never receives the user's actual credit card number.

Users can have multiple cards with various levels of data that can range from just a simple name and password to more personal and sensitive data.

Novell's software is not the first cross-platform implementation of InfoCard, but it is the first that runs natively on the host operating system and that will eventually be packaged and sold.

Developer Chuck Mortimer has created a Java-based identity card selector that runs in a browser, and developer Kevin Miller has created an extension for Firefox to support CardSpace.