So, since my project develops a lot of J2EE apps for various servers we do a not of debugging and profiling of J2EE apps on various app servers.

Currently we use OptimizeIt from Borland for some stuff, but we're thinking of adding a new tool to get better profiling data. One of our senior architects narrowed it down to JProbe from Quest and Introscope from Wily Technologies.

We need to profile on AIX, Solaris, HPUX, Windows and zOS on OAS, OC4J, Tomcat, WAS and WLS. Neither of these products does everything but based on the documentation, it seems Wily comes pretty close (JProbe only works on RedHat's zLinux for zOS).

So the first step is to get price estimates and evals. This should be pretty easy, but proved to be a monumental pain in the rear end. I guess this stuff would cost between $5-20k so I expected to get pricing info online. Guess again, neither site provided pricing info online.

So I got out my phone and started calling. Both had regional sales reps who were out of the office and no one else could give me pricing information. So I placed messages and waited. The JProbe guy was pretty responsive and I talked to him and got all the info I need by the next day. Wily proved a bit more annoying.

I've gotten a couple of emails from the sales rep and a promise or two for him to call me, but it's been a week now and no contact.

So my question is, why the heck do I have to talk to sales people to get pricing and licensing info? I'm not buying some massive enterprise system. I just want some java software. It should be painless.

So short story, my budget is up in the air and I'm really wishing there was a good open source profiling tool out there. I think OS is taking off just because there's none of these stupid pricing frustrations.