In this preface, we'll introduce JBoss, Open Source, and, of course, JBoss ESB. We'll also introduce thinking in Service Oriented Architecture terms, how JBoss ESB can help you, and why JBoss ESB is the best choice for your SOA needs.
This preface is organized into a series of questions and answers. We'll begin at the beginning, the beginning of JBoss, that is.
In 1999, Marc Fleury (http://www.thedelphicfuture.org/) started an open source project that he named "EJBoss" (for "Enterprise Java Beans open source software"). The goal of the project was to provide an open source server implementation of the EJB specification.
The server quickly became popular due to its low cost and ease of use. In 2001, the name was changed to "JBoss" due to Sun Microsystem's legal concerns over the use of the term "EJB". (http://community.jboss.org/thread/69613).The JBoss Group was first incorporated in 2001. In 2006, JBoss was acquired by the world's leading open source software company, Red Hat (http://www.redhat.com). JBoss is currently known as "JBoss by Red Hat" (http://www.jboss.org/).
As Javid Jamae and Peter Johnson point out in their 2009 book, JBoss in Action (http://www.amazon.com/JBoss-Action-Configuring-Application-Server/dp/1933988029), the word "JBoss" is often used to describe the company, its application server, and other JBoss technologies, including JBoss ESB. The full list of JBoss open source technologies and projects can be found at http://www.jboss.org/projects/matrix.
One aspect of JBoss that is especially striking is the significant market and market mind share presence that it has, given its relatively small size. The number of JBoss employees who lead, develop, test, and document all the JBoss open source projects is very small, especially when compared to industry giants such as IBM and Oracle. So, how does JBoss do it? It takes a community.
It's really misleading to look at the small number of JBoss employees relative to the large shadow that JBoss casts, as behind JBoss the company; there's JBoss the community. "JBoss" is also the open source community that supports and contributes to the development, testing, and documentation of JBoss projects. Literally tens of thousands of people (as of this writing, over 80,000 people have registered as members of the JBoss community http://community.jboss.org) all around the world have contributed in one way or another to JBoss projects. Some of them have contributed actual code, while others have contributed documentation, feedback on design or bugs, or have promoted JBoss projects in their personal and commercial blogs.