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Adobe Joins Linux Foundation, Develops AIR For Linux

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the do-we-trust-these-guys-yet dept.

2muchcoffeeman writes "Adobe announced Monday that it is joining the Linux Foundation and alpha-released a Linux version of its new Adobe Internet Runtime environment, which allows Internet-enabled applications to run on Windows and Mac OS desktops, for Linux. According to Adobe, the alpha version lacks some key features that will be available in the final product and only runs with Sun Java, not GNU Java. Adobe also released an alpha of Flex Builder for Linux Monday."

2 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. What is AIR by WPIDalamar · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those of you who don't drink the Adobe kool-aid, a quick explanation.

    AIR is a desktop runtime environment. You can run either Html/Javascript or Flash based applications inside it. AIR provides a few interesting features beyond HTML/Flash including:

    1) File I/O
    2) SQLLite Support
    3) An integrated web browser (based on WebKit) that you can use inside applications.
    4) A fairly good distribution mechanism
    5) Desktop integration (OSX Dock icons, Win32 systray support, etc.)

    It's a great technology if you're using Adobe products to make web applications and you want to branch into making desktop apps.

    It's a great technology if you want to make a desktop app that may later become a web app and you want to share most of the code.

    It's a horrible technology if you're a desktop developer who's looking for a different technology.

    It's way more write-once run-anywhere than Java ever was.

    It does not pick up the system's native UI widgets.

  2. Adobe Loses to SWF by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 5, Informative

    AIR doesn't come preinstalled, so it's just another piece of software people can choose to use, not an existing platform to target with content.

    Meanwhile, the GNU implementation of SWF is GNASH, which just released a new version. GNASH is also not preinstalled, but it's in some ways superior to Adobe's Flash, while remaining compatible (with practically all features found in the wild, and adding the rest) - and free, including not adding DRM you don't want. And GNASH was announced to be part of the new KDE, so it will in fact be preinstalled on lots of Linux machines.

    --

    --
    make install -not war