[CentOS-devel] Project proposal: CentAS

Sat Apr 5 16:03:15 UTC 2008
Steven Stallion <stallions at ociweb.com>

Karanbir Singh wrote:
> for me - wierd name. the jboss stuff is a part of the webstack, which is
> something that is going to get done / built anyway, so the project
> should be aimed at that and the name should signify that. Also, the
> webstack includes other things ( which will be available for testing
> later today ), which are not Java related.

As far as the name goes, JBossAS is the official name of the project for 
the Application Server component of JBoss; CentAS adds a familiar name 
(i.e. CentOS) along with the defacto acronym for most J2EE application 
servers. I suppose the important thing to keep in mind here is that 
JBoss is a standalone project (you generally do not see it in stack form 
in the wild; rhwas is a relatively new invention). It runs on a variety 
of operating systems and JVM's. Again, this project is intended to be 
standalone in terms of distribution and development; packaging with VM's 
and other bits is important to create an application stack, but is out 
of scope for getting the project going.

> 
>> The CentAS project aims to provide a free and redistributable version of
>> JBoss which compiles with Red Hat trademark guidelines and policies.
>> Each release will mirror the stable community releases provided by
>> jboss.org, sans trademarked names and logos. The 4.2 branch will be the
>> initial release target.
> 
> How is this going to overlap / co-exist with the rhwas stuff ?

Again, rhwas isnt the goal here, its a redistributable version of JBoss 
(which exists as a standlone project). The idea is to mirror each stable 
release provided by jboss.org with branding/trademarks removed.

>> Future considerations include packaging/redistribution within CentOS, as
>> well as the possibility of creating a free and open CentOS Application
>> Stack.
> 
> First question on that is - what jvm / jre / jdk is going to be used ?
> is it completely open source and are there any distribution /
> redistribution issues associated with this ?

With regard to distributing a JVM, it is out of scope (see above). JBoss 
was written to run on a number of platform/VM combinations. The project 
is released under the LGPL, and includes other projects with a range of 
other FOSS licenses (i.e. BSD, CPL, CDDL, etc.) Redistribution issues 
are the reason for the project; to redistribute JBoss with 
modifications, it is necessary to remove all Red Hat/JBoss/Hibernate 
trademarks and logos (this is specified in the Red Hat Trademark 
Guidelines, and JBoss EULA).

> you still need a centos developer to join your team of developers :D

Not that I am opposed to this at all, but for donated work is this 
necessary? All information/code/etc. would be hosted on the CentOS 
project servers.

Cheers,

-- 
Steven Stallion
Senior Software Engineer
Object Computing, Inc.
http://www.ociweb.com