Apple WebObjects is now free

When I read about XCode 2.1, this kind of bubbled just under my conciousness. Slashdot brought it fully to my attention, though. Apple has made WebObjects free with Tiger. (Not open source, though…)

I read a bit about WebObjects in 2003 while doing some research for a new project. Though I have seen some folks complain that Apple has let the software languish, I’ve seen some of these same folks say it’s the best way to build a webapp.

It looks very cool, and apparently is Java-based in its current incarnation. So, you can develop on a Mac and deploy on a Linux box, if you wish. You can deploy to a J2EE app server or use Apple’s own server with J2SE 1.3.1+.

The trick, though, is that I can’t find anything about the deployment terms on Apple’s site. Their “Flexible, low-cost licensing”:

Requires only one license per machine, regardless of platform, speed, or number of processors

But *how much does it cost*? I didn’t see anything in the Apple Store and the WO front page tries to get you to buy Mac OS X Server.

(It’s kind of funny ending an article with a title that says that something is free by asking how much it costs…)