Apache Geronimo is a free, open source Java EE application server from the Apache Software Foundation (ASF). The latest released version, 2.1.4, is Java EE 5 certified. In this chapter, we will quickly take you through:
The motivation behind the Geronimo project
Geronimo architecture
The constituent projects that it integrates
Downloading and running Geronimo
Building Geronimo from source code
Contributing to the Geronimo project
This should get you started with using the Geronimo application server right away, and give you a glimpse of what Geronimo has to offer.
Apache Geronimo started as an application server. The first release of Apache Geronimo, that is, version 1.0 was J2EE 1.4 certified. The latest version is backward compatible to the J2EE 1.4, 1.3, and 1.2 specifications. The rationale behind Apache Software Foundation creating this project was:
There was no open source J2EE server based on BSD license available in the market at the time Apache Geronimo was proposed. With BSD license, anyone could modify the source code and also include it in their derivative offerings without making the derivative open source.
There were many projects in the Apache Software Foundation that implemented parts of the J2EE specification. The rationale was to create a full application server that used these best-of-breed open source components internally and filled in the gaps that were missing.
There was still more room for innovation in the J2EE application server space.
Thus Apache Geronimo was born.