Novell is going to push and support the freebie version of IBM's WebSphere Application Server, derived from IBM's acquisition of GlueCode in 2005, as part of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server under a new deal between the pair.

They're targeting JBoss users and will sell the widgetry together, pushing the SOA button.

Meanwhile, the attackee, Red Hat's got Dell saying depreciating things about legacy applications and pushing JBoss on either Linux or Windows, but preferably as the Red Hat Application Stack, which include Red Hat Linux, JBoss and MySQL. And it seems that Dell, Red Hat and AMD are setting up a Java Solutions Center in Austin, Texas to develop and optimize open source Java technologies. Isn't this fun!

In a statement, IBM and Novell said, "By entering into the agreement IBM gains access to Novell's SMB market leadership, providing new sales opportunities from Novell's existing customer base. In return, Novell gains a strong global partner, allowing it to tap into IBM's worldwide sales force. The partnership will provide customers with an enterprise-ready open source alternative to JBoss, while developers will have an opportunity to build on a tested platform in WebSphere Application Server Community Edition (WAS CE), with the full support of IBM, Novell and the open source community as they build their applications."

IBM says there has been a million downloads of the Geronimo-based WebSphere Application Server Community Edition. It is now verging on WAS CE 2.0, which will have full Java EE 5 standard support when it becomes available later this year.

Evans Data says WAS CE gained share nearly three times as fast as JBoss last year and reckons Java EE 5 certification will help IBM push the point.