451 CAOS Theory 
A blog for the enterprise open source community
Adobe Flex is now open source
Raven Zachary, April 25, 2007 @ 11:50 pm ETThe big news tonight (as if we didn’t already have enough this week to keep us busy!) is that Adobe has released Flex as open source (press release). From the release…
Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq: ADBE) today announced plans to release source code for Adobe Flex as open source. This initiative will let developers worldwide participate in the growth of the industry’s most advanced framework for building cross-operating system rich Internet applications (RIAs) for the Web and enabling new Apollo applications for the desktop. The open source Flex SDK and documentation will be available under the Mozilla Public License (MPL).
I spoke with Dave McAllister, Director of Standards and Open Source, in Adobe’s Platform Business Unit, earlier today about the announcement. Overall, I think this is a big move by Adobe and one that will help build some additional street cred for the company with the open source development community. However, it’s hard not the see this move as reactive (that said, it’s still a great move by Adobe). We’ve had a string of open source rich Internet application (RIA) announcements over the past few years from Laszlo Systems to the Dojo Toolkit to Helmi Technologies to ICEsoft to Exadel to Nexaweb. The list goes on. Adobe is a late entrant. At this stage, RIA is synonymous with open source and the opportunities for proprietary RIA vendors seem fairly constrained (UPDATE 04/26/07: ‘Proprietary RIA vendors’ does not include Adobe, due to the announcement. My point here is that you’ve gotta be open if you want to play effectively in this space.)
Let’s step back to 2004. With Adobe Flex and Laszlo Systems’ competing RIA platform, Flash was well positioned to be the technology of choice for the next generation Internet. And then Ajax came along in 2005 and the conversation shifted rapidly away from Flash. Laszlo Systems recently added Ajax output to reach a broader developer audience.
The announcement has the potential to hurt Laszlo Systems most of all. Laszlo has a two-year head start on the open source front, but Adobe’s move to make Flex open source will likely reduce Laszlo Systems’ overall growth with new developers having to make a choice between a variety of platforms. It’s going to take some time to see how this all plays out. However, it’s hard to imagine that Flash is going to regain the mindshare already lost to Ajax. Choice is good - I like Laszlo Systems’ approach with both Flash and Ajax output. Will Adobe embrace the same approach or stick to its own Flash technology with Flex? Several months ago, Adobe announced that it was proposing the Portable Document Format (PDF) specification as an ISO standard. Will we see the same for Flash?
Categories: Software
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Open Flex links, 2…
Open Flex links, 2: There are many more posts and opinion now. I’ll be linking here to ones where I learn a little something different. Links will be in chronological order, oldest findings first. Earlier linklist here…….
The Flash vs. AJAX battle needs to be evaluated amongst the target ‘developers’.
Adobe is clear that Flex was designed with ‘enterprise developers’ in mind. I use quotes because there is no single definition of ‘enterprise developer’.
If we look at this list of parties involved in a typical RIA app, Adobe is coming at the market from 1 to 4 whereas AJAX appeals to folks in 4 to 1. Actually, I’d go out on a limb and say folks in 4 don’t even know Adobe for more than photoshop.
1 Designer
2 Web developer (i.e. uses dreamweaver mainly)
3 Skilled dynamic web developer
4 JEE/.NET Enterprise developer
I’m not a fan of Flash (sorry - I can’t function without mouse gestures for back & forward page movement). But, Flash benefits from being the “only game in town from a trusted vendor”. With AJAX, you’re making a bet that the AJAX vendor/toolkit you pick is the one that will be around in 2 or 5 years. With all the AJAX choices out there today, we’re clearly going to see some consolidation.
There is definitely room for both Flash & AJAX. Since Apollo lets you run AJAX on the Apollo runtime, doesn’t it mean that the Flash player does/could run AJAX also?
Thanks for the post, Savio. I agree - there is room for both Flash and Ajax. Adobe made a wise move in open sourcing Flex.
For Adobe and developers, this is really win-win. One of the most exciting things for me is that some of the better custom components could, in theory, make it into the core release. This gives a lot of incentive for the people out there extending Flex by themselves, and gives developers using the framework the best components out there.
Thanks for the post, Savio. I agree - there is room for both Flash and Ajax. Adobe made a wise move in open sourcing Flex.
I think a balance between Marketplace and your own site will be the key. But no details about WP Marketplace have been revealed yet? So it might not even be possible to link back to your site
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thanks.
This technology ridden world is approaching with a new development everyday. Today’s high competition drives you to find the best software that fulfils the exact needs of your business in minimum possible time and at most appropriate budget….
thanks