JBoss, a division of RedHat, recently announced the first release of their Enterprise Application Platform (EAP), which is based off of JBoss Application Server 4.2. InfoQ took the opportunity to learn more about this release and the potential changes it brings.
The first release of EAP is version 4.2, which corresponds with the version of JBoss Application Server that it is based on - it also bundles in JBoss Clustering, JBoss Cache, JBoss Messaging, Hibernate, JBoss Seam and JBoss Transactions. EAP fully implements the J2EE 1.4 specification, and also provides several features of the Java EE 5.0 specification including EJB 3.0, JSP 2.1, Servlets 2.5, JSTL 1.2 and JSF 1.2 as well as a few other smaller components.
The release of EAP also marks one of the first releases in the new JBoss development and support model - from now on, support can only be purchased from JBoss for EAP, not for the standalone JBoss application server. EAP support is sold on a subscription model which is very similar to RedHat's Enterprise Linux subscription model, with customers paying an annual subscription fee and receiving free upgrades and support during the subscription period. JBoss also supports each release of EAP for 5 years, with 3 years of that being full support and the following 2 years being maintenance support. In addition to technical benefits, the subscription also provides indemnification from lawsuits like those filed by the now-bankrupt SCO against Linux vendors and users.
