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JBoss Founder Interview
peterdaly writes "The JBoss website has an interview with Marc Fleury, the JBoss founder regarding his vision. In case you have been living under a rock, JBoss is an Open Source Java Application Server (J2EE) which has been picking up tons of steam recently, especially with the recent introduction of features like clustering. Competing products from companies like IBM (WebSphere) and BEA (WebLogic) go for tens of thousands of dollars, which is interesting since JBoss is starting to have features the big boys don't. JBoss had 72,000 downloads in October. This is a project to watch."
Mixed platforms on the server side are the norm rather than the exception, in the market where JBoss is trying to position itself.
Consider that JBoss is (will be, in some respects) a J2EE-compliant system, in everything except name. The purpose of J2EE is to deploy in large-scale environments... where you potentially have PC/W2K, Solaris, IBM S390, and God knows what else already providing a business solution.
You will not get a contract to replace the business systems from top to bottom, so take the view that you'll integrate into them instead. Now you're talking multi-tier Facades and Interfaces in order to get these things talking to each other.
You'll want to design things so that there is as little interdependence on co-operating subsystems as possible. Read 'Design Patterns'. Have a serious *think* about XML. Look at the Java libraries and the J2EE designs. Understand.
Have you ever noticed that it "just seems easier" to do things in Java than C/C++/VB(spit!) when there's any degree of complexity ? (I'm not talking about a couple of days' hacking, I'm talking about a designed system). There's a good reason why Java works so well - it's been designed well from the bottom up.
J2EE (and hence JBoss) take that elegance to a higher level of abstraction, but what they're doing is to continue the excellent design principles of the class libraries.
A happy JBoss user.
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
"What JBoss needs is a certification (with levels) for developers to obtain. If I go to a client and say "I have a level 3 WebLogic certification, a level 2 WebSphere certification, and know JBoss", what are they gonna pick?"
Hmm... makes one think, eh? As a developer, I've seen a lot of "certification wars" in the corporate contracting world. Here's my take.
The problem with "level-ified" certifications kinda resembles the "megahertz myth [to quote Apple]" issue. If you're assuming the client is a techno-yokel, you run into this problem with such cert programs.
Imagine, for example, two imaginary Linux certification programs. The first program (call it "EZLinux") sets out their certification map as follows:
- Level 1: Ability to use rm, ls, cp, and mv commands.
- Level 2: Understanding how to use RPM and DEB packages to update and modify a system.
- Level 3: Ability to use fdisk to create and manipulate partitions.
- Level 4: Actually got Mandrake running with help from the friendly neighbor kidz.
Okay, so that's an example of a *terribly* useless "certification" program that wouldn't be worth the paper the cert was printed on. Let's look at the other ficticious program, called "UR-Uber-H4x0r Linux":- Level 1: Ability to quote verbatim the man pages for all Mandrake 8 standard linux commands (doesn't necessarily require deep understanding, just inhuman memory).
- Level 2: In-depth knowledge of kernel configuration and compilation, demonstrated by ability to correctly by hand [no Xconfig for you, for added flavor] compile a 2.4.x kernel for every known supported platform in existence.
- Level 3: Linux Torvalds willingly calls you Daddy, and calls you up for kernel hacking advice. Alan Cox routinely shows up at your pad asking for tree contributions.
Now, if you were Joe Hiring Manager, you might not actually know the difference between the two programs. Joe might look at them both, and say "wow, that first one has an extra level, so it's gotta be better!"Companies will always try to use these tactics to make their products/programs/certs seem better than the others out there. Now, here's the real kicker: if Joe Hiring Manager actually understands why a certain cert is better than the others, he also (in all probability) understands why the product the cert is for is better. Hence, the better product wins. The key is education.
Just my take, that's all
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