JBoss Group is prepared to sign an agreement with Sun Microsystems that would end a dispute over Java compatability certification of the JBoss open source application server, according to JBoss President Marc Fleury. Atlanta-based JBoss Group has agreed to apply for J2EE certification for its application server and pay the standard fee, which Fleury would not disclose. “We did not get a break [on pricing]. We don’t get special treatment just because we’re open source,” Fleury said. To get certified, JBoss first must be subjected to more than 10,000 compatability tests, which will take about a year, Fleury said. JBoss Group now awaits a response from Sun in order to begin certification testing. JBoss Group had been at odds with Sun over the costs and time it takes to get the certification. But JBoss Group, which provides support services for the application server, now has grown large enough to take on the financial responsibility, Fleury said. Previously, JBoss Group was not concerned about the branding because its target audience of corporate developers was satisfied with de facto com-pliance, said Fleury. “As we move into production and bigger deployments and corporate IT environments, then having the mark is important to some decision makers,” he said. Only those who have signed confidentiality agreements at JBoss Group will have access to the J2EE Test Compatability Kit, not the JBoss developer community at large, said Fleury. JBoss Group also has hired Remy Maucherat, a former Sun employee who will continue working on the Tomcat servlet engine as part of the Apache Jakarta project for open source development based on Java, Fleury said. Technology Industry