SpringSource building an empire under the radar

Hey, how about a post that isn't (only) about the Oracle-Sun merger -- radical concept, right? SpringSource yesterday released SpringSource tc, essentially a repackaged version of Tomcat with non-open source enterprise-y stuff, like management and diagnostic tools, built into it. And of course you can pay money to SpringSource for support, too.

One of the interesting -- and perhaps a bit puzzling -- aspects of SpringSource tc is that it doesn't actually come with the Spring Framework out of the box, though Spring says that they're working on making the framework easier to deploy on SpringSource tc. Such a move is an obvious one and I'm sure it will happen soon enough, but it's kind of telling that they were willing release the server before that aspect was ready. SpringSource is moving beyond the Spring Framework, and basically aiming to create a sort of small-e enterprise Java ecosystem -- the stuff that people running Web sites can use if they don't want the accumulated cruft in the Java EE spec. I have no idea how well that will work out in practice, but trying to reboot enterprise Java is a gutsy move.

And how does this fit in with an Oracle-controlled Java? (OK, you knew I had to work this in somehow.) Well, assuming Oracle's aim is that magic all-one-thing enterprise app server/database appliance, aimed at Oracle's current heavy-duty customers, the official Java EE spec might just get more ponderous. Glassfish, while an official Java EE app server, is still a lightweight competitor to SpringSource's offerings; there seems to be a lot of anxiety percolating that Oracle will kill Glassfish, or at least let it wither. SpringSource seems to be happily taking the territory over for itself.