The really big news last week was that JBoss ON (Operation Network) has finally been open sourced as the Jopr project (I’m trying to like the name – honest). JBoss ON is a sophisticated management platform for the JBoss Middleware stack and it’s based on Project RHQ (A collaboration between Red Hat and Hyperic).

There’s a subproject of Jopr called Embedded Jopr which is the basis of the new console for JBoss App Server – this is a significant improvement over the current Web Console and JMX Console and should be a welcome addition to users who are familiar with IBM WAS and Oracle WLS. This first version only suport JBoss AS 4.2 (ie. EAP 4.3) but work is underway to support AS 5.0.

I’d recommend downloading and having a quick play – it takes just a few minutes to get up and running (even for me).  If you don’t have the time there are some screenshots and a short (15 min) video here. There’s also more detail on Ian Springers blog.

But it’s not – JON stands for JBoss Operations Network. There’s a myth that open source ‘products’ tend to be a bit rough around the edges, not easy to use, no flashy consoles, etc. Well, JON 2.0 busts that myth.

I just had a preview of JON 2.0 and was suitably impressed – and I’ve seen a lot of similar attempts in the past so I had some pretty high expectations going in.

The background to JON is pretty interesting too – Red Hat and Hyperic joined forces to develop the core technology for  building management solutions – the open source RHQ project. JON 2.0 is JBoss’ offering based on that core technology. I really think the RHQ project could raise the bar for OSS.

If you’re going to Java One – you’ll no doubt see a lot more of JON 2.0; if you’re not, there are some flash demos here.

btw. I just heard the JON team are hiring – they’re looking for a Product Marketing Manager (GTM, sales training, sales support, collateral, etc.) – I’m not sure the opening is posted yet but if think you’re worthy of marketing such a cool product and think you have the gonads for the fast-paced Open Source environment – drop me a note : rich dot sharples at redhat dot com.