Red Hat preps JBoss Windows alliance

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Red Hat has joined the Interop Vendor Alliance in a bid to get its software working properly with Windows.

Initial work on interoperability had already been started by application server builder JBoss a year and a half ago, before it was bought up by Red Hat.

So far, the interoperability work has focussed on web Services standards such as WS-Security, WS-Transactions and WS-Addressing.

Microsoft too, also an Interop member, has certified its SQL Server 2005 product for the JBoss Hibernate middleware for .Net 1.1 and 2.0 architectures.

Red Hat claims this allows true interoperability of the products at a native level rather than standards adherence alone.

"Enterprise customers count on Red Hat to run their businesses, and they expect nothing less than the ability to leverage Red Hat solutions with their existing technology investments," said Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management at JBoss.

"Through the alliance, we will work with industry vendors to ensure that the Red Hat customer experience is transparent and seamless in spite of heterogeneous environments."

Alongside today's announcement, Red Hat is also a member of the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards(OASIS), Web Services Interoperability (WS-I) and the Java Community Process (JCP) bodies.

The announcement from open-source pure play Red Hat highlights a less well-received deal on interoperability by Microsoft and Novell, both of which are members of the Interop Vendor Alliance.

That deal included a pact not to sue each others' customers over IP infringement claims that has led to discussion over whether or not the Free Software Foundation, which manages the GPL licence under which Novell distributes its SUSE Linux platform, should withdraw the GPL from Novell.

Red Hat's General Counsel Mark Webbink said that the company managed to work perfectly well with Microsoft without having to draw up patent pacts.

"We have found any number of projects in which we have engaged in mutually beneficial development with Microsoft. Those projects are characterised by specifications that are covered by Microsoft's Open Specification Promise or are otherwise not subject to royalty-bearing patent licenses. The IVA provides a platform for such an approach, and Red Hat can always choose not to participate in IVA-sponsored development if it does not conform to these principles," he said.

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