Leaving Behind the ATG Dynamo Framework

At work I've been working with ATG Dynamo for years. Quite frankly, I
think it's great. But now I'm working on a few web projects of my own.
I'd like to start with a quality framework, but I don't have the 5
figures needed to start a project using Dynamo.Alas, I am looking for a
cheaper solution (hopefully free). I know that Dynamo has sort of been
out in right field doing it's own thing while the rest of the J2EE
world did some consolidation. But everything I've seen so far seems to
demonstrate that the ATG folks are still ahead of the game. But I am
trying to do my best to map Dynamo features to their open-source and
J2EE equivolents.

Dynamo Repositories - Is Hibernate the open-source counterpart?
Anything else I should consider?

JHTML/Droplets - Does struts provide comperable functionality?

Nucleus - I am at a loss here. I've taken a look at the Seedling
open-source project. It's show some promise. But how is component
configuration done with other app servers?

Are there any good URLs/books that adaquately discuss the state of
technology related to app servers and proper methodology related to
effective application design? I'd appreciate anyones thoughts in
this matter. Thanks.

-c

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