Wednesday, 25 April 2007

I eat crow: Flex to open source under Mozilla Public License

The other day, I gave Adobe a little kick in the shin when their CEO attacked Microsoft's cross-platform record. I've noted multiple times that they hang in the balance between taking serious steps to show they're ready to take the Red Pill (ironically the codename for a Photoshop release) and start to truly embrace open standards, open source and most of all Linux or proving that they were just a few billion dollars and a monopoly short of being just like Microsoft. Well, then...I got a call from James Ward. The Adobe Flex SDK is being open sourced under the Mozilla Public License and it looks like it is going to be the real OSI-certified one rather than some exhibit B (aka adware/badgeware) monstrosity. This is the first really definitive step that they've taken along the road to truly embracing open source. Guys, this is BIG, this is Really BIG.

James has never fed me a tastier meal of crow. James is a major contributor to Meldware's Webmail Client and even the originator of the source. Without him, Adobe wouldn't have crazy open source supporters like me giving them lip. While I've little doubt this decision is the work of many people, I have no doubt that it wouldn't have happened without the catalyzing effect of James Ward, Adobe's Grand High Evangelical Priest of Flex.

   

I think this is a tremendous step for Adobe, far bigger than their JIT donation to Mozilla. This move cements Flex's position as a defining technology for Web 2.0 development. Moving it to open source will not only improve its adoption but improve the technology through collaboration with the open source community. Buni has been very pleased with our results from using Flex in Meldware Communication Suite and we look forward to collaborating even more closely with Adobe. This will certainly help answer some of the usual Flash-haters at my Linuxfest Northwest talk. Now about that Flash plugin...

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Posted by acoliver at 10:29 PM in Open Source
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Why nothing specified by the JCP is ever open or free continued

Sam Ruby writes...

David Herron: Robert Burrell Donkin (JCP: Time For An OpenTCK) and Steve Loughran (Open tests for open standards) discuss their thoughts about an “Open TCK”. These are interesting thoughts .. ones that make it tempting to conclude that there must be an open TCK for Java...Remember that for Java there are at least four different classifications of test suites that exist:

1. The TCK’s and the JCK are specifically focused on conformance with the specifications.

...

Question: why aren’t we talking about #1?

My question exactly.

As Mark Wielaard states:

trying to negotiate a special deal for a select private group behind a NDA just doesn’t make sense for a open, distributed, collaborative group effort, especially not if you want to build bridges towards other communities and share efforts. Been there, done that, didn’t like the t-shirt.

Sun has an interesting relationship with open source. Open source defeated .NET for Java. Sun learned...sorta...that open source is good for it. However, they keep needing to be sent to the chalkboard. No recess (read:profits) for you Sun until you learn your lesson.

Let us hope that others that come into the crosshairs of proprietary monopolists are faster learners...

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Posted by acoliver at 9:36 AM in Open Source
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