Open source software companies JBoss Group LLC and MySQL AB said Wednesday that they have formed a partnership to market each other's products and services.
The agreement was announced at the LinuxWorld conference in New York, where both companies have also unveiled enhancements to their product lines. JBoss makes an application server based on Java 2 enterprise standards, and MySQL offers an open-source database.
Both companies promote the use of their software on Linux, which has become an alternative to proprietary Unix and Windows Server operating systems. JBoss and MySQL offer their software for free, charging for consulting services and support.
As part of the alliance, JBoss will integrate its application server with MySQL's database servers, which the companies say will simplify development and deployment of web-based Java applications with open source technologies.
The announcement, however, was most significant as a business move on the part of MySQL, Nicholas Petreley, analyst for Evans Data Corp., said. From a developer's point of view, the announcement is less important, because programmers have been using JBoss with MySQL for a long time.