IndicThreads >> Coming to the JBoss Application Server, apart from being free and open source, what distinguishes it from the other application servers?

Anil Saldhana >> Simple answer: world-class production and development support. We are J2EE 1.4 certified and are always striving for innovation while maintaining standards compliance. Plus the ability to trim down the application server to only the services you require.

"JBoss is always striving for innovation
while maintaining standards compliance."

Features like hot deployment, JMX service management and clustering have been favorites of the community. Integration of quality open source products like tomcat, hibernate, and jGroups provide one-stop solution to enterprise customers at no cost.

Also I would like to direct the readers to have a look at JEMS [JBoss Enterprise Middleware System] (http://www.jboss.com/products/overview) that provides a plug-n-play capability with open source technologies for the enterprise. Leave the integration headache to us.

"JEMS [JBoss Enterprise Middleware System] provides
a plug-n-play capability with open source technologies for the enterprise.
Leave the integration headache to us."

For customers, JBossNetwork (http://www.jboss.com/services/jbossnetwork) is a new initiative at JBoss that will provide expert knowledge and productivity enhancing tools all accessible via a Support Portal.

IndicThreads >> What are your thoughts on Apache Geronimo? As Geronimo also has the free and open source advantage, do you think it will soon offer serious competition to the JBoss Application Server?

Anil Saldhana >> We are light years ahead of other open source application servers. We achieved J2EE 1.4 certification long ago and are focused on J2EE 1.5 currently. We have an established customer base. JBoss customers have rated our support as the best in the class ( http://www.jboss.com/pdf/supportsurvey.pdf). It will be very difficult for other open source application servers to achieve the same kind of charisma and customer satisfaction that JBoss has garnered.

"JBoss is light years ahead of other open source application servers."

Last month, BZResearch (http://sdtimes.com/news/117/story5.htm) released a market survey on application server market share and JBoss is at the top of the list over BEA and IBM. Anybody wanting to enter the J2EE market open or closed source, will have the same long uphill battle we faced over the past few years to gain any market penetration. Geronimo isn't even 1.0 yet or J2EE 1.4 certified, correct? When they finally release, they are going to have the same long uphill battle to win customers away from three entrenched vendors.

"We are here to stay. Any time, a programmer or a customer
who is looking for a no to low cost solution to use J2EE, is most likely to pick JBoss"

We are active in the JCP and majority of the specs including JSR-220 (Enterprise Java Beans 3.0). So we are here to stay. Any time, a programmer or a customer is looking for a no to low cost solution to use J2EE, is most likely to pick JBoss.

JBoss' success did not happen overnight. People go to JBoss because they know they can get high quality middleware and high quality support, from a company with an established reputation, first-tier partners and established-name enterprise customers.