The official launch of application server WildFly 8.0 is creeping ever closer, but in the meantime, RC1 is already making considerable waves. Just last week, it was deemed worthy of being added to Oracle’s list full fully platform compatible implementations of Java EE 7 – further consolidating its position as worthy spiritual successor to GlassFish.

With new cachet, the server now has added appeal for companies looking to migrate to Java EE7, or those that have made the jump, but are looking for a viable, buoyant GlassFish alternative.

The thriving, active community around popular server GlassFish was dealt a body blow last November when it was announced in a roadmap update that, going forward, there would be no more commercial major releases. Although Bruno Borges was at pains to reassure users that the offering was far from finished, with evangelist Arun Gupta’s abrupt departure to RedHat, for many, the writing was on the wall.

Even now, Oracle is still mopping up from this fallout, with Oracle staffer David Delabassee taking to the GlassFish blog this January with a post emphasising that commercial support for GlassFish 3.x is set to continue “for years to come.”

This support isn’t the same as full backing though – something GlassFish blog guest authors Hildeberto Mendonça and Efraim Gentil from CEJUG pointed out in a post last week, where, in a pointed jab at Oracle, they wrote, “serious” open source projects need the backing of at least one company with a “genuine interest to be profitable with that project in the long run.”

The writers added that, “It’s a matter of fitting the project in the current economic model, where people can be employed full time to address the continuous flow of issues and features coming from users all over the world. That’s what happens all the time at RedHat and that’s what stopped happening at Oracle in the case of GlassFish.”

Of course, the road ahead is still open for ‘the one true’ successor to GlassFish. Also in contention for this role is the Apache server TomEE. There are also the options of LodgON and C2B2 , which have both arisen to offer a lifeline to jilted GlassFish users. Finally, there’s also the prospect that the GlassFish community could muster it’s resources and turn the project into a powerful open-source prospect – though this would need some serious clout to help drive it.