When it comes to using Java "server sided", in other words: execute your Java
code on the server and sending clients the output, you will usually run across
something which many home users seem to consider a big obstacle: the EE
container, also known as the Java Application Server. For all those people
there is now a good substitute available; the Sun Java Webserver 7.0.

Sun has had the SunONE webserver 6.1 around for some time which managed to
overcome some obstacles (iow; made it rather easy to use jsp and the likes) but
was also rapidly dropping behind when looking at all the features which the
current EE5 has to offer.

It has taken a while but Release Candidate 3 of the Java Webserver 7.0, the
upcoming replacement of SunONE 6.2, has been released. According to the website
this will also be the last test release before the official full release.

What I like best about this software is that it tries to combine the best from
both worlds. On one hand you have the SunONE webserver (an enhanced development
of the older Netscape webserver) which is quite extensive and robust. It
basicly supports most of the features which Apache can offer you (even PHP
support if need be).  And on top of that you got a Java EE container which
supports many of the standards we can find in the EE5 release.

The advantage here is that you don't have to mess with 2 seperate software
components which makes it a lot easier to implement Java servlets into your
website(s). Of you may simply want to create a full blown webapplication to run
your website, the sky is almost the limit.

Sun Java Webserver 7.0 supports:

    - Java Servlet 2.4 and JSP 2.0 support
    - JSTL 1.1 and Java Server Faces 1.1 support
    - JNDI support
    - Java database connectivity and connection pooling
    - Java SE 5.0 support
    - Java webservices development pack 2.0 support
    - Supplies modules for NetBeans 5.0 and Sun Java
         Studio Enterprise support.
    - Runs on Solaris, Linux and Windows.

People more familiar with Java EE5 will notice that it is a little behind in
comparison, but despite that I think that the platform is still ideal for those
who are just starting to discover servlets.

You can download the Java webserver here:
http://www.sun.com/download/products.xml?id=446518d5

Documentation and release notes can be found here:
http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/coll/1308.3

Questions, bugreports and overal comments seem to be welcome here:
http://swforum.sun.com/jive/forum.jspa?forumID=16

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disclaimer:

Unfortunatly I'm not 100% sure when this version was released so its possible
that this news is somewhat dated. To my knowledge it hasn't been mentioned in
this group before but should I have missed that then my apologies up front for
a possible dupe.