Adobe Open Sources Flex SDK Under MPL

andy_from_nc writes "Adobe announced that they are open sourcing their Flex SDK under the Mozilla Public License incrementally by December. This move comes on the heels of Microsoft's announcement of their Silverlight and Adobe's CEO's criticism of it. Adobe's action will likely please other open source developers who use Flex, like me, and offers hope that we'll see a full open source version of Flash one day. You can read Adobe's FAQ on the move as well."

Comments

Game UI

[Aladrin]

I've seen some talk lately about using Flash to create GUIs for games and other 3D apps. I would think that open-sourcing Flex would get those same people to think about using it instead. I think this is probably a pretty solid move for Adobe and will drive adoption of Flex quite a bit faster.

The ability to improve it yourself definitely doesn't hurt, either.

You fell for it, huh?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Adobe's action will likely please other open source developers who use Flex, like me, and offers hope that we'll see a full open source version of Flash one day.

There's a sucker born every minute, isn't there.

What Adobe has done by throwing an "open source" SDK bone is made it appear like they're leaning toward open-source Flash without actually giving away any of the crown jewels. Adobe's move is very much like the gigabyes of "open source" code samples Microsoft makes available in its extensive MSDN library: you can use and modify them for free, but you still need Microsoft's core (and proprietary) software to make them work.

Re:You fell for it, huh?

[EricTheGreen]

Well, actually the GP has a point...Adobe isn't open-sourcing any of the server/data access/interop components. So while you might be able to freely assemble a great-looking webpage-embeddable UI, what use will it be without the ability to access/manipulate data stores and services? And if you can't do that...what's the point of using Flex in the first place? Wasn't it targeted at corp developer types? If all you want are pretty apps, wouldn't you be using the web designed-focused Flash tools in the first place?

Sure it's great the SDK code will be freely available and inspectable; I'm all for transparency in software and its licensing. But Adobe has still locked up the middleware and will continue to charge an astronomical amount of money for it. And the tool won't be terribly useful without it, unless you're one of the wildman-types who rolls his own data access remoting. So the GP isn't that far off, at least in my opinion.

What would be helpful for the dev community would be an FOSS interop gateway/platform where the remoting headaches have already been solved. Maybe it exists somewhere; if so, now would be a great publicity opportunity for it.

(And yes, I've done Flex development before, so spare me the snarkiness...)

Re:You fell for it, huh?

[uss_valiant]

I think you underestimate the significance of this announcement. True, Adobe isn't open-sourcing Flash. But open-sourcing the Flex (MXML) compiler and SDK is still very important.

MXML compiles into .swf (which runs in the normal Flash runtime). You won't get open-source Flash runtimes, but the compiled .swf files will be 100% open-source whereas right now, .swf files compiled from MXML still contain statically linked, non-FLOSS components in the same binary as your own (FLOSS) code.

Also, you'll be able to extend MXML since you get the sources and the rights to change the compiler.

I guess I still won't be able to release any MXML+.swf code under the GPL though.

• Right now, I picked the LGPL since our main project (some web application) is licensed under the GPL.
• You can't release any MXML/.swf under the GPL if you depend on any of its built-in features that it needs to compile into the .swf binary.
• Sidenote: If the compiled .swf only includes normal Flash features that are part of the runtime, your .swf/source can still be released under the GPL.

Since there's the incompatibility between the GPL and the MPL, I will still have to use the LGPL for my own MXML code. If the Flex SDK was released under the GPL, this problem would have gone away as well.

Re:You fell for it, huh?

[AKAImBatman]

This *is* slightly better than you make it sound, as Adobe is effectively giving away a free development environment. However, this mostly just replaces the open source stuff like MTASC, so it's like it's earth shattering. But it is a step in the right direction. Especially since having a free SDK could save experienced developers thousands of dollars on purchasing Adobe's cruddy IDEs.

Why do Adobe even care about Silverlight?

[stunt_penguin]

Microsoft's only market for Silverlight is some universities and eLearning facilities that are too short sighted to use Flash for multimedia delivery; the only way MS could possibly even put a dent in Flash's ubiquity is if they traveled back in time and made sure that Silverlight something that was installed on every windows machine from Windows 98 onwards.

Adobe have a massive user base for the Flash plugin (perhaps one of the highest user bases for any software in the world? (barring MS paint).. interesting question) and the application itself, and I don't see Microsoft making a dent in it in any meaningful way- why should Adobe even bother looking over their shoulder when you can ask most users what Flash is and they'll say 'oh it's that thing you need on the interwebs that does ______'.

Anyway, I've been wanting to make the move to Flex (from hand-coding my XML requests etc) and this is a great chance to do so. Spry integration into Dreamweaver CS3, then open-sourcing Flex? Some moves in the right direction, Adobe :)

Now, about that XML into After Effects idea I had :p

*runs off to buy master suite*

Re:Why do Adobe even care about Silverlight?

[btSeaPig]

the only way MS could possibly even put a dent in Flash's ubiquity is if they traveled back in time and made sure that Silverlight something that was installed on every windows machine from Windows 98 onwards

- or release it as a critical update

An unexpected smart move - Adobe deserves credit

[Qbertino]

This is a suprising move indeed, and changes the game for RIAs big time. As of now Flex is right up there with Laszlo and Co. when technical decision-makers talk about RIA generators and compilers. This dimishes the corporate media hype about Silverthingie from MS to a minor sidenote.

Kudos also to the Laszlo guys and the Motion Twin ActionScript Compiler and all the other projects listed at osflash.org for putting the presure on Adobemedia for the last few years. And Kudos to Sun for leading the way in open sourcing key technologies - I suspect that played a major role in this decision. And thanks to Adobe for scaring the living wee-wee out of Microsoft's Web Division. I can just imagine the look on their faces. Hehe.

Oh, and last but not least, to all the idiots here on slashdot allready ranting about Flash, Flex, Laszlo, RIAs and whatnot: Shut the f*ck up, you don't know squat what you're talking about.

Re:Not impressed

[kripkenstein]

Adobe is putting small pieces on Linux (and other OSS), just when they feel attacked by MS.

Reality isn't headlines on Slashdot (there goes my karma). Yes, we recently had a story about Microsoft's new supposed "Adobe-killer" technology. But it is extremely doubtful that this is related to Adobe's actions as mentioned in the current story. For one, actions such as this are planned far in advance. Also, ActionScript was already in the process of being open-sourced; Adobe simply see OSS as part of their overall strategy. So open-sourcing the Flex SDK is in all likelihood not a knee-jerk reaction to very recent actions of Microsoft.

Flex has always been open source.

[Anonymous Coward]

Flex has always been open source.

http://flex.sourceforge.net/

I don't know what Adobe's product is, but it is not Flex.