JBoss parent company Red Hat, meanwhile, plans in a few weeks to offer a beta version of release 5 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. "The big driver behind that OS platform is that we've integrated virtualization capabilities," enabling multiple OS instances to be run on a single piece of hardware, said Brian Stevens, vice president of engineering and CTO at Red Hat.

Red Hat and JBoss officials were interviewed by InfoWorld on Wednesday at a hotel near the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco. Although the two companies might seem like a natural fit for such a show, they are not exhibiting at it.

JBoss has not exhibited in the past and continues with this stance, according to a company representative. Red Hat has released a statement that the company prefers more direct contact with the open source community.

"Red Hat values our long-standing and vibrant collaboration with the open source community. As a company, we have found that more direct methods of communication and engagement beyond LinuxWorld, including seminars, Red Hat Summit, and other focused events, help us to maintain and grow our interactions with our customers and the Linux community," the company said.