What these businesses have in common is that their Web-based applications are huge, processing a heavy load of transactions - and JBoss has been chosen to handle a core business activity.

Most CIOs I know are suspicious of JBoss, or anything else that's free. They prefer to have the security of cancelling the cheque and seeking retribution if the product doesn't meet specifications. They find it difficult to trust something they haven't bought. It's a major mind-shift for them to know their developers can just download the software via the Internet and use it without being accused of theft of intellectual property.

But JBoss is changing that mindset. Crucial to this nascent acceptance is that, since 1999, the JBoss organisation has grown into a sound business. They are not nerds in a suburban garage, but hard-nosed professionals who make their money by charging substantial fees for training and consulting - and they're finding a steady stream of customers from the corporate users who download the software each month.

US industry analysts say Atlanta-based JBoss is the third major open source project to achieve significant adoption in enterprise IT. Its Web application server software has already been downloaded two million times at an estimated rate of 250 000 times per month.

Some industry publications believe it is the most widely used application server, above IBM or BEA. It recently weaned two large accounts away from IBM, a fact JBoss CEO Marc Fleury openly boasts about.

JBoss claims to be the most downloaded Java-based application server in the industry. Being free means its is an attractive development platform for J2EE-based applications.

Fully operating system independent, JBoss is truly professional open source software. It works with any platform offering a Java Virtual Machine.

It is a platform for large Web and Web-server systems and competes in capabilities directly with WebSphere, WebLogic and Oracle Application Server.

My experience at the JBoss developers' course was that it is a collaborative and inclusive platform. From a development project point of view, access to the source code is a major advantage as you can, in most cases, resolve your own problems.

It is the bane of a developer's life to be on hold to a supplier's call centre because there are secrets in closed-source software, and your project can't progress until someone else unlocks them for you.

Having worked with several of the core JBoss developers on the course - and with other skilled professionals keen to share their experiences - I am convinced JBoss provides a completely new, collaborative style of developing systems.

And I believe this is highly relevant for SA, where cash and skills are at a premium when it comes to developing and deploying effective applications.

I'm unsure how many local companies use JBoss because there are no invoices or licensing fees. But I do know a JBoss developer recently flew to Cape Town on a consulting consignment - another South African JBoss application up and running on the Web.