Matthew Aslett notes that Red Hat is planning to release the next version of JBoss in the same way it does its Linux products: Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Speaking at the UBS Global Communications and Technology Conference, Red Hat's EVP and CFO, Charlie Peters, said the company is working on a plan to create a Fedora-style community development version of JBoss as well as a subscription-only RHEL-style package.This is a smart move and, in my opinion, continues to demonstrate the superiority of Red Hat's model over other open source models in the industry (though, perhaps, the model doesn't fit as well for "non-complicated" applications, as Red Hat's Brian Stevens has suggested)."One of the things that we're trying to address is the development model, to come up with something similar to the RHEL/Fedora model," he told the conference. "At the moment we're still working on that model for JBoss, it's not a model that they had before," he added.
A change in the package model is part of the company's plans to convert the 11 million free JBoss users to subscription customers, Peters added. "We have an installed user base today that are natural customers when they get to the point of needing to have better support," he said.
It's a great way to give developers what they want - cutting edge, free (as in cost and freedom) technology - and to give enterprises what they want - painless way to adopt that great technology.
Posted by Matt Asay on November 15, 2006 10:04 AM
