Andreas Schaefer's Blog

JBoss entering the Evil Empire

Today I just stumbled over the press release of JBoss announcing a partnership of some sort even though it is not clear to me what this means. This release does not surprise me from a business view but I am surprised from my past experiences working on JBoss. I can remember the first JBossOne in 2002 when one presentation showed the "screaming monkey" making fun of Steve Balmer. On the other hand I never thought that JBoss would become the wedge between Java and Sun. It seems that Marc Fleury became the "Drew Rosenhaus" of the Java open-source community using the movement to advance his agenda. I would not be surprised when one day JBoss would be bought by Microsoft. Luckily there is still Geronimo out there and I definitely have to have a look into the project now.

Have fun – Andy

Comments

• I'm not a big fan of JBoss (for other reasons), but I think you're a bit too worried. Sun and Microsoft are both just companies. And interoperability with Windows seems useful. Sun is supposedly working with Microsoft for better interoperability, too.
  

  Posted by: tjpalmer on September 28, 2005 at 07:52 AM

• I was excited about this release when I heard it internally and knew it would rile up the blogger crowd. You bloggers are so predictable and it is fun to see you all scurry about.

  BTW, JBoss is not becoming a wedge between Java and Sun. In fact, Sun and JBoss are actually pretty tight allies in the JCP and have a common vision of the future of Java EE. I think you need to read the press a little more carefully to interpret the reasons of the Microsoft partnership.

  As for Marc, his goal was always to start a successful company. Open-source entrepeneurs should be encouraged not discouraged.
  Bill

  Posted by: patriot1burke on September 28, 2005 at 08:30 AM

• Oh Bill
  Your response is so predictable as usual. Yes, Marc is an enterpreneur but, sorry, he just plays the open-source system rather than working for it. He kiicks out anyone working for a project competing with JBoss down to the fact that there references in the projects are removed. I learned my lessons working for the JBoss Group (now JBoss Inc.) and I am happy not to have to deal with some of the JBoss Inc. again because you had no mercy when you helped to kick me out of the project. I completely agree that Marc always wanted to have a successful business even when it means to sell his own grandmother.
  -Andy

  Posted by: schaefa on September 28, 2005 at 10:49 AM

• yes, we kick out contributors that:

  a) Go to work for commerical competitors that are J2EE licensees. This is a potential legal hassle for us.

  b) Contributors that fork JBoss

  c) Contributors that try to relicense JBoss under a non LGPL compatible source license

  As for yourself, you fell under (a) when you quit JBoss to get more money elsewhere after Marc gave you an H1B and a job when you needed it most.

  BTW, We do not remove author references in source code. I still see your author tags here and there as well as others who are no longer contributors.

  Really, get your facts straight.

  Posted by: patriot1burke on September 29, 2005 at 08:39 AM

• Interesting. With Hibernate living outside the scope of JDO & EJB 3.0 (although Hibernate should come under that scope), I wonder if Hibernate will somehow force a future lock-in into Microsoft's SQL Server with its "optimized use". Microsoft has been hungry for quite awhile for a chunk of the DB market. Of course Toplink did the same with Oracle, so long as we stick to SOME specification standard (JDO / EJB 3.0), I'd be happy.

  Posted by: phlogistic on September 29, 2005 at 08:54 AM

• Bill, you want the facts straight so here we go

  When Marc offered me a job a had a second job offer of a company in Los Angeles which would have supported an H1B visa, too. So no reason to feel generous because it is just business.
  I paid heavily for my decision to work for JBoss and so I needed to find another job to support my family especially after my first son was born. If you or Marc cannot understand that for some developers family is more important than their business goals then get a life
  You removed all the developers moving to the Geronimo project from you team list but you could have listed them as retired.
  Yes, I was working for another application server even though that this one was not sold as an application server but was only available as a component of the company's suite. If you were serious about your community then you just could have asked me to stop contributing for the time being rather then kicking me out especially after I disclosed that to you by myself.
  If you are so offened by people forking JBoss how can it be that you (JBoss) fork JSPWiki project without being a hypocrit
  

  Posted by: schaefa on September 29, 2005 at 11:48 AM

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