Flex is now Open Source - one of the sweetest announcement from Adobe

With the official announcement of Adobe that Flex will go Open source have basically changed the nature of the game for developing RIAs (Rich Internet Applications). Developers can now use the Flex SDK to freely develop and deploy Flex applications using either Adobe Flex Builder or an IDE of their choice. The source code for the Flex SDK will be available under the Mozilla Public License (MPL).

Adobe is announcing that Flex will be released under the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Along with Tamarin, Adobe will make Rich Internet Application Development an Open Source Experience. Developers can use the Flex SDK to freely develop and deploy Flex applications using either Adobe Flex Builder or an IDE of their choice.

The Open Source Flex initiative will thus make not only the source of ActionScript components from the Flex SDK, which have been available since Flex 2, but also includes the Java source code for the ActionScript and MXML compilers, the ActionScript debugger and the core ActionScript libraries from the SDK. The Flex SDK includes all of the components needed to create Flex applications that run in any browser - on Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux and on now on the desktop using Apollo.

Sign up for the Google Group discussion on Flex Open Source. You can download the Flex SDK too. So, Open Source believers, let’s flex our Rich Internet Application Development experience.

Q. Why Adobe chose the Mozilla Public License?

Mozilla Public License was the best one to help remove the concerns of Adobe’s customers and other commercial vendors, while retaining the drive to release code changes as the modifications are distributed. It also pairs well into the Tamarin project, which was also released under an MPL license. MPL allows the community to innovate freely, and that innovation will help bring Flex freely into new opportunities and new features.

Q. What is Tamarin?

The goal of the “Tamarin” project is to implement a high-performance, open source implementation of the ECMAScript 4th edition (ES4) language specification. The Tamarin virtual machine will be used by Mozilla within SpiderMonkey, the core JavaScript engine embedded in Firefox®, and other products based on Mozilla technology. The code will continue to be used by Adobe as part of the ActionScript™ Virtual Machine within Adobe® Flash® Player.

Read more details about the Tamarin Project.

REFERENCES

Tamarin Project
Open Source Flex
Google Discussion Group for Open Source Flex
Flex SDK
Flex.org
Apollo

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Brajeshwar posted this article on Thu, Apr 26th, 2007 at 11:32 am
Categorized under Adobe

Comments Post Yours

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Brajeshwar April 26th, 2007 at 1:00 pm 1

Wow! Who is that I saw it coming. I have some hunch though.
Rishi April 26th, 2007 at 1:08 pm 2

1) Yes, it is the most sweetest announcement from Adobe.

2) I cant understand properly that why they chose Mozzila Public License.

3) Its good for developers now but I guess it will cost Adobe huge!
Ante Vrli April 26th, 2007 at 2:36 pm 3

I saw it coming too… Having Apollo, Flex no longer seems that important to this company…
M. Schopman April 26th, 2007 at 3:34 pm 4

Saw it coming to. Flex never really had a big presence, and I see this more as the last breath of a dying product. If we cannot make enough money with it through a commercial model, then we will try the service model where we gain goodwill by making it open source.