Wednesday, 25 April 2007
I eat crow: Flex to open source under Mozilla Public License
« Why nothing specified by the JCP is ever open or free continued | Main | James Ward's Google talk on Flex/Flash/Apollo »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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I eat crow: Flex to open source under Mozilla Public License
Ward Andrew
Great report. I've put up two videos we filmed this morning of my visit to Adobe to talk about the open sourcing of Flex.
http://www.podtech.net/home/podtech/2826/breaking-news-adobe-flash-flex-goes-open-sourc
http://www.podtech.net/home/podtech/2827/the-architecture-of-flash
Great steps !
Now, mainly just more more piece to go... go on, give us your flash, and a new world awaits you. Heck you give it away free now already.
Man, you got some pull with adobe. One post and they open sourced everything. Think you can do a post about Photoshop? ;)
This is a great first step, but certain important pieces will be held back, including the Flash player and the Eclipse-based Adobe Flex Builder. Governance of the project will remain firmly in the company's hands. See "Adobe keeps Flash, Flex close to the vest" for more analysis.
Andy- You're on Slashdot! Cool!
Ed, Thanks for writing up your thoughts. We love to hear them which is why phase one of this whole plan is just to get feedback. You are right that this isn't the whole stack. But now the two most important pieces in the stack are open source; the Mozilla Tamarin VM which is used in both Flash Player and Apollo, and now the compiler, debugger, and framework classes. Also you seem to criticize the governance model which is actually very similar to most open source projects. Please join the flex-open-source Google Group and provide us more details about why you think the governance model we are talking about using is insufficient. For more of my thoughts on why this announcement matters to developers check out my blog:
http://www.jamesward.org/wordpress/2007/04/25/open-source-flex-top-10-reasons-to-rejoice/
-James
Nonetheless Flex will still be a proprietary silo, aka vendor-lock-in, because one of the key component, Flash, is still not open source.
Don't be fooled.
Also, Flex server is not open so there is still a vendor lock-in if you want to host your own Flash / Flex apps. The comparison to Linux is weak (most people do not run Linux Desktop on Memexes. Linux is run mostly in the server rooms. If Adobe were to open up Flex Server, that would be more than a serving of crow, that would be a day that hell freezes over even with Global Warming in play!
Our mail client does not require flex data services nor does our server and we host it ourselves as well as do others. FDS is not required at all and there are plenty of alternatives (many of which come with the SDK).
Well, it's nice, but I have to wonder why they chose the MPL as a license. At least for tamarin they chose Mozilla's triple license - the MPL is not GPL compatible, and you have to wonder what the MPL offers that the MIT/BSD/LGPL/GPL licenses don't offer. When >50% of the open source code out there is GPL-licensed, it's to your advantage to make sure your open source project is able to incorporate all that code.
Also, we get a SDK, but no runtime?
I think it's telling that Sun with Java was in the same position as Adobe with Flash, and that they chose the GPL for their runtime.
I think it's a matter of time before the runtime gets reimplemented. Shame though because multiple implementations of Flash may result in Flash developers having to test their stuff on different players - it's inevitable there will be some differences. Adobe could preempt this by openening up their player, but I guess it makes business sense for them to keep maximum control over the platform (although, multiple different competing pdf viewers and editors didn't diminish the market for Acrobat; same could be the case for Flash)
Still, it's a very positive step; I was already happy when I discovered that there was a command-line mxml/as3 compiler out there (not that keen on the Flash IDE myself, it's not much of a text editor ;-) ) - the fact that it's relatively open now makes my day.
I eat crow: Flex to open source under Mozilla Public License
Scoble (with video)James WardAndrew
Haha. Thanks Andy. Your check is in the mail. But it really wasn't me. It was you and all of our other customers who wanted this to happen. :)
-James