I have a feeling a good majority of the applications intended to be run on those X million downloads of glassfish will find that the free version is good enough. So the mails that come from Sun once you've registered your application server trying to convince you to buy one of the paid for versions don't really amount to all that much. Who would pay for a "bigger badder" version they don't need when they can get the "does the job" version for free.

On the other hand, I think a lot of people would consider getting training for glassfish even if they are only running the free edition. Giving people a sample of what that training is sounds like a good idea.

...according to Sun Microsystems' chief executive Jonathan Schwartz is to first build volume and then figure out how to make money from the audience you've created."

I thought the Underpants Gnomes had already patented that business model.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gnomes_plan.png

... to use GlassFish.

For my particular purposes, I find that Tomcat+OpenEJB gives me precisely the functionality I need (so far, at least) and both components are open-source anyway - certainly for a small business such as the one I work for, dropping $25k (or equivalent) on a product just isn't an option, even if cut-price training might be.

I wonder how many of the X million downloads are still being used, though.

"...first build volume and then figure out how to make money from the audience you've created".

Nice work - if you can get it. It paid off for Microsoft and Amazon; not so much for thousands of others who went bust while "building volume" (aka losing money).

It does help if you have one of the biggest and most lucrative computer manufacturing businesses in the world to fund you, though.

The reason we decided to provide the introductory training for free, was because we wanted to match the true way people adopt software. Individuals adopt software through a stepwise path - awareness, download, trial, etc. up until they go into production and define long term maintenance strategies. We want developers, SI's, ISV's, etc., to be able to download the software and be productive within a very short time.

This aligns with our desire to provide:

1.) Easy Access to Software

- use the open source for eval, development, rapid deployment

2.) Complete Software

- with rich functionality

- with no need to assemble, compile, pre-test, or figure out post patch alignment

3.) Simple to Use Software

- end the madness of increasingly complex software (which increases probability of error)

4.) Partnership, Mentorship, Leadership in the Open Source Eco-System

- sometimes we'll partner (Liferay or Project Metro with Microsoft), sometimes we'll Mentor (Ericsson and Project Sailfin) and sometimes we'll lead (Java EE)

We want to help others make money with our projects so they (developers, project leaders, ISV's, SI's, OEM's, resellers, etc.) find Sun an advantage to them in every way. That is why we want them to have free training immediately and why you'll see us releasing a fully integrated, supported, multi-OS Web Stack (LAMP/SAMP/WAMP/MAMP, etc.), see Java EE 6 focusing on profiles and simplicity, see Sun partnering with companies like Liferay and others TBA and GlassFish V3 supporting OSGi modularity, plus the upcoming support for all the most popular developer tools.

And note: one additional reason for the above - is I believe that developing projects in open source (with a true, lead/mentor/partner strategy) will advance web technologies far faster than we have seen over the last 10 - 15 years. Vendors with closed platforms work hardest to get customers attracted and then locked-in to their platforms so that they can then harvest long term revenue from them - but this caused those vendors to care less about advancing the technology than on either capturing, locking-in or grabbing more revenue from their existing customers. Sun's open source methods force our projects to grow with the needs and innovations of our incredibly innovative community of individuals and groups. And to do this - we need to help our community members get productive quickly - thus easy to download - free initial training.

Paul Hinz

//

The reason we decided to provide the introductory training for free, was because we wanted to match the true way people adopt software.

Individuals adopt software through a stepwise path - awareness, download, trial, etc. up until they go into production and define long term maintenance strategies. We want developers, SI's, ISV's, etc., to be able to download the software and be productive within a very short time.

This aligns with our desire to provide:

1.) Easy Access to Software

- use the open source for eval, development, rapid deployment

2.) Complete Software

- with rich functionality

- with no need to assemble, compile, pre-test, or figure out post patch alignment

3.) Simple to Use Software

- end the madness of increasingly complex software (which increases probability of error)

4.) Partnership, Mentorship, Leadership in the Open Source Eco-System

- sometimes we'll partner (Liferay or Project Metro with Microsoft), sometimes we'll Mentor (Ericsson and Project Sailfin) and sometimes we'll lead (Java EE)

We want to help others make money with our projects so they (developers, project leaders, ISV's, SI's, OEM's, resellers, etc.) find Sun an advantage to them in every way. That is why we want them to have free training immediately.

And note: one additional reason for the above - is I believe that developing projects in open source (with a true, lead/mentor/partner strategy) will advance web technologies far faster than we have seen over the last 10 - 15 years. Vendors with closed platforms work hardest to get customers attracted and then locked-in to their platforms so that they can then harvest long term revenue from them - but this caused those vendors to care less about advancing the technology than on either capturing, locking-in or grabbing more revenue from their existing customers. Sun's open source methods force our projects to grow with the needs and innovations of our incredibly innovative community of individuals and groups. And to do this - we need to help our community members get productive quickly - thus easy to download - free initial training.

Paul Hinz

//

As I've said before, I don't mind looking stupid if I learn something. So, what is glassfish? It doesn't actually tell me what it is on <https://glassfish.dev.java.net/> which seems a bit of a daft lapse [*]. According to wiki it's an application server but I don't as such know what that is but I guess it might be a middle tier for business logic and UI presentation that sits between DB and front end (probably web front end UI).

But that doesn't tell me why I should use it, or where, or how it could benefit me/client, which is what I want to know. I'm happy to invest some in some training if I know what it's for, and why I should use it over other app servers that wiki mentions, or why I should indeed use it over Simon Ward's recipe of Tomcat+OpenEJB.

Over to you.

.

[*] possibly mine if I haven't looked hard enough.