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The term "lightweight container" has been en-vogue for a few years now (roughly since Pico/Spring came about). At first it kinda made sense, as they did seem tiny little containers compared to the big beasts WebLogic/WebSphere.

However, I think that the term is actually completely the wrong one. This thought came about as people have been saying:

"Spring is far from a lightweight container. Look at how much crap is available for you! Web/DAO/IoC/TX/AOP/RCP/JMX/Portal/WebFlow.... call that lightweight!!!"

It is true that Spring now has a lot of functionality available in its core, and a ton more hidden in the sandbox.

To me, the point is that Spring lets you apply lightweight development. I don't need my container to be 10kb for enterprise development, and just be an IoC container. I actually WANT my enterprise container to be able to do the HEAVY lifting, allowing 'lil 'ole me to write in a lightweight, POJO based model.

So, I no longer think lightweight container. I think lightweight development.

I hope Spring keeps putting on the pounds as it makes more and more aspects of our development easier.