I promise this will be my last Adobe AIR post for a while, but this is big news for the Open Source community.
It’s offical. Adobe has released full Linux support for Adobe AIR.
I’ve been coding like a mother lately, as evidenced in my blog posts, in the AIR/Flex environment. And I’m amazed at the potential.
Adobe AIR provides a framework to build desktop applications with web programming languages.
To the novice, this means that you can build out fully functional and sexy as hell applications for your desktop simply and robustly with XML, HTML, CSS, Javascript, AJAX, PHP, Actionscript, and others.
To the novice’s novice, this means that you can create non-web software without learning really difficult programming languages.
And now with Linux support, everybody can run any Adobe AIR application. And there are already many to choose from.
The new Digg reader looks promising, I’ll have to check it out.
So I got my hands on the linux development last night testing out one of my favorite AIR apps, Thwirl.
Right now, Thwirl seems to be everybody’s favorite Twitter APP due to its flexibility, scalability, and overall sexiness.
You can add multiple accounts, post to Jaiku and Pownce simultaneously, and there’s plenty of built-in color schemes and mods.
Oh, and did I mention that you can browse Twitter from within the box? Nobody’s seemed to go that route yet.
The application was a bit shakier performance-wise than when I run it on my iMac at work. Namely the ultra-cool status updates in the top-right corner, which seemed to flash and bug out after they launch.
Hoping whatever issue that is gets resolved on the AIR-end soon.
So moving on to my personal coding.
I’ve been tweaking source code for Spaz (an open source Twitter application for Adobe AIR) and Bee (a Wordpress AIR app), and I’m hoping to glue them into a desktop application that will read/post to Twitter, post to wordpress, and have a flickr feed to refer to.
But now that AIR is on linux and everybody with a computer can use it, there’s a few questions on my mind:
Where will this lead us? There’s only so much space on a desktop to compete for.
What do you think AIR apps will be like a year from now?
Will my grandma install AIR?
4 responses so far ↓
1 James // Apr 8, 2008 at 4:14 pm
How is yet another proprietary RIA system that isn’t open sourced ‘big news for the Open Source community.’? This is not really a victory, but rather a defeat.
2 Bryan Woods // Apr 10, 2008 at 11:06 am
I’d imagine it comes down to why you choose to run Linux in the first place.
I run Linux because it’s free and because the OS is extremely light.
Meaning I don’t need to throw my 5 year old Dell to the curb.
That doesn’t amount to a whole lot ideologically, but for me it’s still important.
There’s no defeat in open source, anyway.
Proprietary systems are funded with far more money and development than their open source counterpoints.
So running linux is at best always a small step behind.
The Adobe AIR system works great for what it does, and for developers to be able to code such robust applications with web scripting language is a huge win for the development community -
Why is it a win for the Open Source community?
Because now I can run Twhirl on my Ubuntu PC.
And I really, really like Twhirl.
We’re not saving lives here, we’re talking about applications that delight and entertain.
3 Bob // Apr 10, 2008 at 11:44 am
While I think it Air is great, and I’m glad it’s on Linux for you kids, YOU GOT PWNED! I expect a phone call with your rebuttal before 1.
4 Bryan Woods // Apr 10, 2008 at 2:00 pm
Come again?
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