Open source moves higher up the stack

Application server producer JBoss Group has patched up a long-running dispute with Sun Microsystems and will join Sun's Java Community Process and go for Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) certification.

The move, one indicator of open source acceptance further up the middleware food chain, means that JBoss can participate in the future direction of Java.

The JBoss application server already conforms to J2EE but has not yet gone through formal certification.

"For JCP some of our developers thought we should have some input to Java and perhaps bring some improvement. So we said 'Let's do it,'" new European general manager Sacha Labourey told vnunet.com.

"For J2EE certification we agreed terms with Sun in mid-July, but have waited three months for the contract."

Before that, JBoss had complained of compliance costs which led to pricing negotiations with Sun.

JBoss is supplied free of charge with the company making money from consultancy services and support. But there is still some residual friction.

Labourey explained that Sun will not allow the JBoss to participate in its J2EE scholarship programme because it does not regard JBoss as open source as the company makes money from surrounding services.

He added that J2EE certification, ensuring compatibility with other J2EE software, had been driven by JBoss independent software vendors and systems integrators.

Users were not unduly concerned since it was actually a self-certification process using Sun software and they already knew that JBoss worked, according to Labourey.

JBoss competes with BEA WebLogic and in theory IBM WebSphere application servers, although Labourey said: "When you choose IBM you choose IBM. It's more a direction you take."

JBoss claims over five million downloads and users including Siemens and MCI as well as a number of Wall Street companies.

Other open source middleware at a level above the Linux operating system includes the Apache web server and MySQL database, the latter now being promoted by software giant SAP.

JBoss also said that it is expanding into Europe, with new headquarters in Switzerland. JBoss Europe already has offices in the UK, France, Germany and the Ukraine.