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The Apache Software Foundations Geronimo Java application server has passed the Java 2 Enterprise Edition 1.4.1 test compatibility kit, or TCK, which means it is headed for full-blown certification.
Geir Magnusson, chair of the Apache Geronimo project, said in his Weblog Thursday: “Last night, Geronimo passed the test suite part of the TCK for the first time! Were not done yet —official certification requires a bit more—but were almost there.”
When Geronimo eventually gains J2EE 1.4, now known as Java EE 4, certification, it will become the third open-source implementation to do so, following JBoss and Jonas. Suns recently open-sourced Java System Application Server Platform Edition 9.0 might be considered a fourth.
Initially the Geronimo committee had pledged to release its implementation last August, but continued to work on the platform, which passed the TCK on Wednesday.
IBM and BEA Systems Inc. have put their support behind Geronimo, with IBM recently acquiring Gluecode Software Inc., which has built its business model around support and service of the Geronimo application server.
Francois Letellier, a member of the executive committee of ObjectWeb, a consortium of open-source technology and service providers, said that despite the lag in delivering a compliant version of Geronimo, “They did make it less than one year later. IBM support probably helped a little. Good job.”
ObjectWeb Chairman Jean-Pierre Laisné said: “Congratulations to the Geronimo team, and welcome on board! Now that there are four open-source J2EE projects around, theres no doubt that J2EE is commoditized. Our teams worked in coopetition to reach certification. Now we are looking forward to close collaboration on a component-based architecture for our platforms that would permit interoperability of services.”
Meanwhile, Magnusson thanked individual members of the Geronimo team and also offered “thanks to Sun for helping us resolve some 11th-hour issues with the test kit and such… Finally, thanks to the Apache Geronimo community and the Apache Software Foundation for the support to make this possible.”