Battle for Developer Mindshare: Adobe To Open Source Flex SDK
Looks like the battle for the future development platform of choice is really spilling into the open source realm. First, we see SUN releasing Java as open source after a long decision making process. Then SUN makes another move by released the entire J2ME platform as GPL and also releasing an an open source J2EE stack. This is on top of OpenSolaris which was released earlier as Open Source. With distributions like NexentaOS, a complete SUN stack from operating system to runtime environments to SDKs to applications are now available as open source.
Now, Adobe is releasing its Flex SDK as open source.
Adobe revealed plans today to release the source code of the Flex SDK and compiler under the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Flex—a cross-platform compatible framework for developing interactive Flash applications with XML and ActionScript—allows developers to construct Flash programs using idioms that are less overtly media-oriented and better suited for conventional software development.
Availability of the source code, which will make it possible for independent developers to modify and improve Flex, could potentially cause a community of third-party contributors to emerge around the platform. Source code availability will also make it easier for third parties to incorporate Flex support into existing development tools or build new tools based on Flex components.
Adobe Flex is a key ingredient in its Apollo virtual machine. Apart from Flex, all other components of Apollo already use open standards and open source components. This new development will make the entire stack more open. So looks like both SUN and Adobe are betting that to rule this space ones platform must be open source. I wonder if Microsoft will soon follow suit? As for Adobe, the only piece missing is an open source runtime.
