JBoss version details and Decision on JBoss Vs Tomcat vs Websphere

[Nilesh Bond]

Hello All,

I am new to the JBoss world, till now i was using Websphere and Tomcat.
Please take some time to answer few of my basis queries.

1) What is the main difference between the Tomcat and JBoss.
I am expecting the difference that will help me choose one over the other.

2) Is JBoss Free? Can i use it in Developer and Production environment without incurring any cost?

3) My Application is not using EJB's, it will be Spring, Struts application. Earlier I was planning for Tomcat 6. But client has demanded "JBoss 4.3".
Is there any good reasons to move to JBoss from Tomcat in this scenario.

4) When we talk about JBoss 4.3, are we talking about the JBoss Enterprise Web Server ?
Or are we talking about JBoss Enterprise Application Platform 4.3

Any additional details/suggestions will be helpful to me.

Thanks in advance.

[Paul Sturrock]

1) What is the main difference between the Tomcat and JBoss.
I am expecting the difference that will help me choose one over the other.

One is a Servlet Container, the other is an Application Server.

2) Is JBoss Free? Can i use it in Developer and Production environment without incurring any cost?

You can get free editions

3) My Application is not using EJB's, it will be Spring, Struts application. Earlier I was planning for Tomcat 6. But client has demanded "JBoss 4.3".
Is there any good reasons to move to JBoss from Tomcat in this scenario.

There are the other services Application Servers provide. JBoss contains Tomcat, so you can just use JBoss as a Servlet Container and run off all the other services you don't need.

[Peter Johnson]

4) I assume JBoss Enterprise Application Platform (JBoss EAP), at least that is what I always associate with the 4.3 version (there was no 4.3 version of JBoss AS). I have no idea what the version numbers are for JBoss Enterprise Web Server (which, if I recall correctly, is the paid-prescription variant of JBoss Web, which is a branch of Tomcat).

By the way, this is why I am always very prickly about the use of the term "JBoss" by itself - it is meaningless. The term "JBoss" is a brand name used on a variety of different software and middleware components, all of which are different. I have often been frustrated in answering forum posts where the "JBoss" the poster was talking about was not the one I assumed they meant.

Oh, and one more thought - if your client wants JBoss EAP 4.3, it is not free! The client must pay a licensing fee to use it.