The examples are meant to be run either in an app server, or in some cases even without an app server. They all work and are fully functional applications. Most of them have web front ends on them. Download them from the Apress web site and take a look.
We tested them with Glassfish and on OC4J, but they should in theory work on any app server. I would recommend Glassfish, though, as it is the most stable open source version of
Java EE around. If you like JBoss and are experiencing instability then knock yourself out.