Is Adobe Flex really the future of the Web?
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
