Any article that includes the phrase "before I start a flame war" is invariably going to do just that. But Eberhard manages to tackle the 'Spring vs. Java EE' debate in as delicate a manner as possible, even going so far as to assert "I think "Spring vs. Java EE" is the wrong question." Is Spring solving all of your batching problems? Is Java EE helping you with cache performance problems? Probably not, so to assert that any framework is a modern panacea is just foolish.

Spring vs. Java EE and Why I Don't Care

On a related note, RedHat is running a webcast today entitled Java EE 6 and CDI: Moving away from the clutter of Spring and other frameworks. This webcast just might be a little less even-handed than Eberhard's editorial piece.

Yeah, its not Spring vs. JEE.  As I keep repeating myself, many components of Spring have a deep dependency on Java EE components like: Servlet, JSP, JPA, JTA, JMS, and maybe even JAX-RS, JAX-WS, and JCA depending on your environment.  And, there's many features that Spring has that doesn't exist in JEE.

The great thing about programming per se is that there is a lot of choice when it comes to languages and then to APIs within those languages. Not all the APIs need to come from a single source - and nor should they - as monopolisation isn't a good thing.

Which is why i find the spring has, jee doesn't (or vice versa) a poor comparison because spring is a product from a single organisation, jee is a framework/spec that multiple organisation's follow but which does not limit their ability to create other APIs that can integrate with it or solve (in their own product way) the issues the OP may have outlined.

In my experience, it isn't the API or product or tool that satisfied the business requirement that 1+1=2, it's the programmer writing the routine (in any lanaguage) that produces the correct result.

We have two important people Rod Johnson and Gavin King who matters.

King has completed his task of making seam and hibernate JSR Standard. But He cannot convince Redhat to build a new light weight container from scratch.

Rod is working on making tomcat enterprise level. But he cannot lead the team in making spring JSR 100% compliance.

So the competition is between two people approaches.Lets see who will win?

I think we've been beating a dead horse over these posts of Java EE 6 vs Spring.  Just use what you like already! The world is not going to end if you go with either platform.

Even the teddy bears got it right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__23CvFPi78

Java EE, Spring, and why I care

If you are looking for a god excuse to pick EJB instead of Spring pick the thread safety one, as this is, IMHO, the least embarrassing one. You will only have to explain why you have thread safety concerns in a stateless server that you cannot handle for yourself.

To wrap things up, let us never forget that, while EJB is really nothing more than than server side component model reduced to stateless session beans from the practical Java EE point of view. It is nothing, it is meaningless.

EJBs are more like an appendix, a useless remainder from the Java EE grandfather CORBA, useless today, but still there.