March 30, 2026
Fishy comeback or old bait?
Eclipse GlassFish: This Isn't Your Father's GlassFish
Glow-up or ghost of the past? Devs debate GlassFish comeback as Spring fans throw shade
TLDR: Eclipse GlassFish 7+ is pitching a legit revival with paid support from OmniFish and modern Java features. Comments split between confusion (“what is this?”), brand baggage (“old donkey” jokes), and the bigger fight: rivals vs. Spring, which many say still wins by being simpler and hassle-free.
OmniFish showed up with a bold claim: Eclipse GlassFish 7+ is back and enterprise-ready, with paid support, frequent updates, and the latest Java standards like Jakarta EE and MicroProfile. But the crowd instantly split. One early voice asked the question half the room was thinking: so… what even is a GlassFish? Cue a crash course: it’s basically the thing that runs big Java apps for companies.
From there, the vibes got spicy. A hands-on dev vouched that “it’s small, stable, and works,” but side-eyed the old-school parts (“HK2,” a wiring tool under the hood) like it’s that one legacy plugin you never fully trust. Another commenter shot a flaming arrow into the heart of the debate: forget comparing to old Oracle releases—stack it against Payara or WildFly, the rival servers. Then came the nuclear take: the infighting among these servers is exactly why Spring—the trendier, “don’t-think-about-the-server” option—won the popularity contest.
And the brand crisis? Oh, it’s real. A brutal quip nailed the perception problem: say “GlassFish” and people “assume you’re an old donkey.” So is this a glow-up or just lipstick on a fish? Tech-wise, it’s a serious reboot. Marketing-wise, they might need a bigger net.
Key Points
- •Eclipse GlassFish (v7.0+) is positioned as production-ready with commercial support and frequent updates led by OmniFish since 2022.
- •OmniFish states it provides enterprise guarantees, long-term support, and project leadership within the Eclipse Foundation.
- •A historical timeline details stewardship shifts: Oracle era, open-source without commercial support (2012–2022), Eclipse Foundation releases, and OmniFish-backed maintenance since 2022.
- •Eclipse GlassFish is claimed to be first to pass the Jakarta EE 11 Web Profile and Platform TCKs.
- •Modern GlassFish supports key MicroProfile APIs (Health, Config, REST Client, JWT) for microservices development.