OBJECTWEB AND APACHE TO TEAM UP ON OPEN SOURCE J2EE

The ObjectWeb Consortium and the Apache Software Foundation, two international non-profit organizations focused on Open Source software, kick off collaboration to speed up the availability and certification of Open Source J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) application servers.

Grenoble, France, and Forest Hill, MD (PRWEB) December 9, 2003 -profit consortium of government and businesses focused on development of Open Source middleware technologies, and the Apache Software Foundation, a 501c3 non-profit organization also dedicated to the development of Open Source technologies, have agreed to collaborate to speed up the availability and certification of their Open Source J2EE (Java 2 Enterprise Edition) application servers. An agreement in principle was established during the ApacheCon conference in Las Vegas, NV, on November 17, 2003. Today that agreement has been ratified by the release of two middleware components from ObjectWeb under a new license in order to enable their reuse by the Apache Software Foundation developers.

OBJECTWEB IRONS OUT LICENSE CONCERNS TO ENABLE COOPERATION WITH APACHE

ObjectWeb and the Apache Software Foundation both work on Open Source implementations of J2EE, the main standard for Java application servers. Their projects are respectively named JOnAS and Geronimo. JOnAS has been used in production for years and currently implements J2EE 1.3 plus some features of J2EE 1.4. Geronimo is a new project launched on August 6, 2003 and is still in the Apache incubator". Both JOnAS and Geronimo aim at being officially certified as J2EE 1.4 compliant by Sun next year.

While the goals of the ObjectWeb consortium and the Apache Software Foundation are very similar, they typically release software under different licenses, the LGPL and the Apache License respectively. While the Apache License allows ObjectWeb to use Apache code within the LGPL-licensed JOnAS server, the LGPL did not allow Apache to use ObjectWeb's code under the Apache License within Geronimo.

Application servers like JOnAS or Geronimo are assemblies of software components. JOnAS already relies on components developed by the Apache Software Foundation (e.g. Tomcat, a Java servlet container). ObjectWeb decided to depart from its licensing policy so to enable in return Geronimo developers to use some ObjectWeb components. For this reason, JOTM (a Java transaction manager) and ASM (a Java byte-code manipulation framework) are from now on distributed under the BSD license, which is compatible with the Apache License.

Apache Software Foundation Vice-President Geir Magnusson Jr. explained: The Geronimo team is very happy to be able to use ObjectWeb components under the BSD license. ASM is a very powerful framework whose use has dramatically improved Geronimo performance. Further, we have very high expectations for JOTM, as it is the Open Source transaction manager which best meets our needs. We are very excited about this new collaboration with ObjectWeb".

SYNERGIES BETWEEN APACHE AND OBJECTWEB ON J2EE AND BEYOND

The collaboration will speed up both JOnAS and Geronimo evolution. For ObjectWeb, the uptake of JOTM and ASM by the Apache Software Foundation is a major recognition by its peers. This will contribute to increase the industrial adoption of key middleware components on which JOnAS is built. For Geronimo, the integration of ready-made components will lighten the development effort as encouraged by the philosophy of Open Source.

On the long term, the development of broad synergies is expected. Apache and ObjectWeb scopes extend far beyond J2EE and embrace a wide variety of middleware. The universal adoption of its renowned web server gave a tremendous momentum to the US-based Apache Software Foundation. As a consortium hosted in Europe with members all over the planet, ObjectWeb brings the proven ability to federate multi-cultural projects on a worldwide scale.

ObjectWeb Vice-President Jean-Pierre Laisné declared: Apache and ObjectWeb share the same vision of middleware becoming commodity and in this respect, the advent of certified Open Source J2EE is a must. Our teams see themselves more as partners than as competitors even though Geronimo and JOnAS will definitely remain distinct projects with their own identities. This will enable professional users to choose between different implementations providing different tradeoffs for development, deployment and production purposes. The Apache developers are renowned for their expertise and efficiency. This is a privilege for us to team up with them. We wish all the best to this new collaboration".

Apache Software Foundation Board Member Brian Behlendorf states: "This is a great example of how two Open Source communities can work together on a common objective while still retaining their individuality. We don't have to constantly reinvent the wheel just to be different, a trap that software projects frequently fall into. I'm very happy to see the ObjectWeb and Geronimo developers working together."

ABOUT OBJECTWEB
Founded by Bull, France Telecom and INRIA, ObjectWeb is an international consortium of leading enterprises and research organizations who have joined forces to produce next generation of Open Source middleware. ObjectWeb's goal is to provide Real-Time Enterprises with independent solutions which combine quality and robustness at the best possible performance/cost ratio. ObjectWeb targets alternative solutions to proprietary products for e-business, EAI, data connectivity, grid computing and enterprise messaging. Based on open standards, ObjectWeb's middleware includes application servers, components, frameworks and tools. Examples of ObjectWeb's "cost killer" middleware are JOnAS -- an Open Source implementation of J2EE specification, JORAM JMS -- a Message Oriented Middleware and Enhydra -- a Java/XML Application Server. ObjectWeb is hosted by INRIA. To learn more about ObjectWeb, please visit http://www.objectweb.org.

ABOUT THE APACHE SOFTWARE FOUNDATION
The Apache Software Foundation provides organizational, legal, and financial support for world-class, Open Source, Java, Perl, XML, Tcl, and PHP projects, in addition to the world's most popular Web server. The membership driven, non-profit, Foundation exists to ensure that the Apache projects continue to exist beyond the contributions of individuals, to enable contributions of intellectual property and financial support, and to provide a vehicle for limiting legal exposure while participating in Open Source projects. For more information, please see http://www.apache.org .
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PRESS CONTACTS
ObjectWeb - François LETELLIER - +33 4.76.61.54.87 - contact@objectweb.org
The Apache Software Foundation - Sally KHUDAIRI - +1 617.921.8656 - press@apache.org