JBoss ships J2EE app server

Open-source software company JBoss on Monday released a major update to its Java-based application server software, which the company says will help spur sales to corporate customers.

JBoss Application Server 4.0 is infrastructure software used for building and running corporate applications. The latest version complies with the Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 specification, which ensures than programs can run on application servers from multiple providers with limited modifications. JBoss AS 4.0 also builds on the company's aspect-oriented programming design, which is meant to simplify the process of server-based applications. With the release, JBoss bundles other open-source products including Tomcat 5 for serving Web pages, JBossCache caching software, and Hibernate 2.1, which is used for accessing data in relational databases. JBoss sells services around the software, which it releases through an open-source license.