Maureen O'Gara

Red Hat is looking for a new name for the open source JBoss Application Server, a k a JBossAS, because the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform has gotten bigger than just Java.

So it's staging a community election to rechristen the widgetry with a name that reflects polyglot programming and support for Java EE-alternative frameworks like Spring.

In a press release issued Monday Red Hat said it is "embracing the evolution of transformational technologies such as dynamic service fabric, cloud, NoSQL, mobile and multi-language polyglot computing as part of its product strategy. To mark this evolution, Red Hat plans to enable broader developer access to the JBoss Enterprise Application Platform product, and will be holding an open election to select a new name for the JBoss Application Server community project." It's hoping for quicker evolution.

Red Hat senior director of middleware engineering Mark Little remarked in a blog post that "JBossAS evolved and became the basis of everything we do. Whether it's portal, SOA or mobile, JBossAS is the fabric on which we build. And then of course there's the Fabric effort which is continuing to feed into it and other projects. What this means is that JBossAS today is very different to what it was a decade ago. The uses cases it has to satisfy are orders of magnitude more complex and diverse than they were. Put simply, although Java EE is central to what it does and we do as a community, it is no longer the only driving force behind it."

The widgetry currently supports Ruby, Clojure, Ceylon and Scala.

Nominations will be accepted online up to October 14 at www.jboss.org/vote, the best suggestions will be picked by Red Hat people followed by a run-off and vote by the community from October 21 to November 1 with the winner to be announced at the Devoxx conference in Antwerp on November 12.