Mind.random()

A lot many things in the recent past made me wonder if Adobe is becoming the next Google?  If not in ads, at least on the innovation front.  The beta release of Acrobat.com startled me and finding its features cutting edge almost kept me dumstruck. 

Impressed by the non-proprietory webtop office application Google docs,  a year back, I give it a shot once a month (till now) and I log off with the same feeling everytime that it still has a long way to go.  But everybody knows that it was not google which started it all.

On the contrary,  Buzzword looks more “funky” (apologies for my natural bent over flash applications) and fast (unlike “flash” !!!).  Learnt that there could be a collaborative editing on the documents.

Gave web conferencing a try too. (Adobe Brio what they call it as).  Cool and very much friendly. Features look similar to webex and best of all, its free. Three is the max number of users in the conference.  But I dont personally mind because I dont need to ask my friend to install VNC for helping him out for an issue with his computer.

I dont want to give out a detailed feature list because thats what experts are for. 

Tags: adobe, free webex, innovation, web conferencing

This year and the last saw a lot of the so-called proprietary  companies open sourcing a huge chunk of code, either as GPL, BSD or their own EULA.  Sun had the most impressive stats on this.  Fine.

I have been developing J2EE web applications for quite a number of years now and last year, like everybody, i was caught up with this Ajax fever. In a couple of projects, I “created” certain places for plugging in Ajax.  I am not a Javascript expert but I was really amazed at how some of the Ajax frameworks made my job so easy. DOJO nearly killed me last December. Ajax is good. But then delving deeper, it is still Javascript.  Security is an issue but the issue that bugged me was the scope for a lot of bugs. Cross-browser compatibility issues. And certain things dont work at all in IE. Or Firefox.

But then Adobe Flex came up and caught everyone’s attention.  I really used to feel jealous about those Flash based sites. It took a little time to download the application but post-download,  it was just magic.  And the idea of “programming” flash made me really happy.  I eventually joined the “Flex is the future” bandwagon.

I am still a fan of Flex. But then there was something else that was conflicting in my Flex interest. Its NOT open source. It is free. Fine. But it is still proprietory.  Just like a few states in the US and those Russian schools which shunned Microsoft, it is not at all good for the future to get bound to a bunch of coders. I can see from the flexibility and the power of Flex that Adobe has invested a huge sum towards this project. But then, what is the guarantee that Adobe wouldnt be closing down this entire project just because it didnt pay off well?  And in a few months, comes the Mozilla 3.0 (I really like the “Who needs a server when you have a browser” concept). You will have the power to run interactive web applications offline.  And if you really intend to stick on to the “Flash” part of Flex, try Open Laszlo and the wonderful demo page it gives.  Flex can do more. But Laszlo is open source. People at Laszlo say that their “current output format” is Flash. And they are planning DHTML too. (Next GWT?). And then what other format? (the power of community there !!!)

Adobe should realise that making a software free isnt going to gain wide acceptance and community support.  Developers are more and more conscious and careful in their selection of technologies. I have, a few times, convinced my manager into adopting open source alternatives than going for proprietory software (Not for the cost it involves)/free software. Free software sounds “Free suspicion” too. GPL is just too hot to refuse. If not GPL, BSD is fine. Adobe can market that “premium Flex” if they wanted to.  Java was hot. But GPL gave a “second life” to Java. Why did Sun open source its most secure Unix Operating system? Why are more and more giants looking for community support?

Its not that Adobe needs to be taught on this. They already know this. The question is “Are they reaching the right ears?”

Tags: adobe, adobe flex, ajax, OpenLaszlo

Adobe Apollo, the cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to to build and deploy rich Internet applications to the desktop, is OUT for its Alpha.

“Apollo is the combination of the advantages of web applications (network and user connectivity, rich media content, ease of development, and broad reach) and that of the desktop applications (application interactions, local resource access, personal settings, powerful functionality, and rich interactive experiences)

There is a few more days you have to wait for the final version. But then, who cares. You can play with it NOW.

You can grab the runtime and the SDK for Mac and Windows to start building.

There are sample applications to get inspiration from, and you can watch the DEMO 2007 talk.

source : Ajaxian

Tags: adobe, apollo, RIA