The JBoss Group is to discontinue its JBossTwo event
which runs the same time as Sun Microsystems' JavaOne developer
show.
In the past, The JBoss Group publicly battled with Sun over
whether it should have to pay to certify its JBoss application
server, which is released under an open-source licence, as
compliant with Sun's J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition)
specifications.
In November, JBoss and Sun settled their differences and JBoss
has taken its first steps toward J2EE certification.
Since then, the company has been working within Sun's Java
Community Process (JCP) to develop a version of the Enterprise
JavaBeans (EJB) specification, said Bob Bickel, vice-president of
strategy and corporate development with JBoss.
"We have helped influence JCP standards in the past, but we
officially joined the JCP in September, then we signed the J2EE
certification agreement with Sun in November, and we joined this
EJB group a couple of months ago," he said.
Sun, along with Java suppliers such as IBM and BEA Systems, are
working on a new version of the specification that will be easier
to use, and JBoss is contributing "significant resources" to that
effort, Bickel said.
Because of its animosity towards Sun, JBoss did not even
consider participating in previous JavaOne shows. The fact that
this year it will not only be present in a booth, but also
participate in the show's technical sessions, is indicative of a
thaw in relations between the two companies, Bickel said.
Robert McMillan writes for IDG News Service