why is JBoss AS free to use?

[amit daundkar]

hello,
i have been using Glassfish V2 for some time. but want to shift on JBoss as some friends suggested.
i want to know why these AS like JBoss is free to use?

i would also like to know whether JBoss provides additional features with linux?

please reply.

[Hong Anderson]

Because it's open source, and JBoss AS was written in Java so functionality in all platforms will be the same.

[Peter Johnson]

JBoss AS is released under the LGPL license, which means that it is open source (anyone can get the source and build it) and can be used without having to pay a license for it's use. RedHat (which owns all of the JBoss middleware) makes money by selling support for production use. If you are a company whose livelihood depends on having a running web presence, and you are using JBoss AS for that, then you are likely to want to purchase a support contract to ensure that any issues are dealt with promptly. If, on the other hand, you are someone who just wants to play around with Java EE to improve your skills or learn new technologies, then you can use JBoss AS without having to pay a penny, and if you run into problems you can ask questions here and hopefully get some answers.

There are no additional features available on Linux. JBoss AS is pure Java, so any features it has are available on all platforms that support Java.

[amit daundkar]

thank you,
Peter