Sun ONE will be free, and maybe Solaris?
From CNET News:
The company said it has released two new versions of its Sun ONE Application Server 7. The Platform Edition is available as a free download for Solaris and Windows operating systems. The Standard Edition includes additional management tools and costs $2,000 per server processor.
Maybe Sun is listening to Russell, because they've really started to pick things up lately. If you look at their homepage, it's all about this download. Too bad there's no Linux/OS X version. I doubt I can hack the Solaris version to work on OS X - though I was able to hack the Solaris J2EE RI to work. I've heard great things about the 7.0 version of the app server. I hope it does well.
Bias Alert: I've worked with Netscape/iPlanet application server since NAS 2.1 and have detailed knowledge how everything works/doesn't work. So my hoping for a better version is definitely tied to my existing knowledge and hopes of leveraging it with folks hoping to implement a Sun ONE Solution. Also, I am certified to teach iPlanet courses for Sun and I'd love to start getting more teaching gigs - they've been non-existent lately.