Novell's involvement in JBoss... What? When?

[jwalls]

My company is currently at the point of choosing a portal framework. We are a Novell Netware/Linux and IBM AS/400 shop. Most of our in house development happens on the AS/400. The Netware/Linux paltforms are for file and print, applications, and so on. We also run some Windows only for specific apps when we have no other choice. So, we have quite a bit of choice as to what platform to run a portal off of. We are currently wrestling with which way to go... Since we have AS/400's in the mix, WebSphere comes into play asd an option. I think that is a really bad and expensive way to go, but it is an option. I myself tend to lean towards the OSS path with JBoss or eXo as a portal framework. That being said, I have good ties with Novell, and we have also been evaluating their ExteNd portal/Integration development framework. So... Considering the fact that Novell is contributing a lot of the ExteNd portal, and portlets to JEMS, and these inclusions in JEMS may bring the product to the point that I need, I have the following questions:

What is the timeline for Novell to release this stuff to JBoss and the OSS community?

Will the portlets they are contributing be available in the standard download of JEMS?

Thanks,

John Walls
Technology & Network Services Manager
Distribution and Auto Service, Inc.
[e-mail]

[mholzner]

What is the timeline for Novell to release this stuff to JBoss and the OSS community?

Novell is actively contributing to several JBoss projects. The contributions are primarily new code. This is a gradual process that will continue , and probably grow over time.

Will the portlets they are contributing be available in the standard download of JEMS?

It's too early to determine how the Portlets will be distributed. Some Portlets are being migrated, others need to be re-written. We haven't finalized the list of Portlets yet, nor the contribution timeline.