Adobe AIR != Silverlight, should not be compared
Adobe AIR and Microsoft Silverlight should not be compared.
Understanding the difference
The only thing both have in common is that they are new technologies.
Adobe offers AIR to allow their existing customers, RIA developers and designers, to extend their applications from the web to the desktop. Microsoft offers Silverlight, in similar fashion, except it wants to leverage its existing desktop application customers to build RIA apps for the web.
Understanding competitive goals
As far as being competitive, I’m sure Microsoft would love (and is aiming) to draw existing Adobe customers away from leveraging Adobe’s development and design products like Flash, Flex Builder, Fireworks and Photoshop. In turn, Adobe could likely draw existing Microsoft-technology desktop developers into adopting their products if perceived as an ‘easier and more efficient’ way to build desktop apps.
Who will win?
The consumer (the RIA developer or designer, as well as existing desktop developer) will win. Competition fuels more features, better pricing and more options. No doubt, if you find ‘your religion’ to be either Adobe or Microsoft, you’ll find virtue in what each company is doing.
Adobe is sitting pretty well in this bid for adoption and creating the desktop mindset. The primary reason is a combination of their existing mass adoption of Flash Player. Another contributing factor is the assumed decline in PC/Windows market share as Mac adoption continues to grow. Lastly, web 2.0 has created a surge in RIA skilled developers, where as traditional development has seemingly leveled-off. Combine all these, and you can understand why AIR has tremendous potential in drawing existing and new customers into the desktop development space.
Microsoft has the power and capital to move more powerfully in one director or another. Look for them to make necessary corrections quickly, be competitive with pricing, and flick on a couple of magic switches that will rapidly increase the adoption of Silverlight.
Speaking at Boston Flash Platform User Group (BFPUG)
I am very excited to be attending my first BFPUG meeting on February 27th, joining fellow Flash developers from my hometown. I’ll be arriving fresh from 360|Flex in Atlanta to present some very cool Ribbit news, code and sample apps. I’ve already heard from several Boston-based Flash and Flex developers who will be attending. Looking forward most to hanging out after (and maybe even before) the event with some good friends I’ve missed since moving West.
Here are the details and I look forward to seeing you there:
Meeting is next Wednesday, February 27, at 7:15 pm at the NEIA Annex on Boylston Street.
Why AIR?, my 30 second tribute
Here, posted on youtube, is my 30onair video, driving home my enthusiasm for the Adobe Integrated Runtime.
360 Flexlanta!, where Flex calls home
It doesn’t matter what Flex books you have on your shelf (or open and stacked on your desk). It doesn’t matter how many times you visit onflex.org everyday, or how many photos of the Baker-Hamilton building you have on your wall. It doesn’t matter how many bottles of wine you drank, by yourself, to toast the release of an AS3 Yahoo! maps API earlier this week.
If you were to cut each and every conference logo or badge open with a Fireworks slice tool, none would bleed Flex more that 360|Flex.
I’m attending my 3rd straight (well, the first one I only attended in spirit) 360|Flex conference on Feb. 25 in Atlanta. I’m presenting Ribbit and for the first time, the exciting profitability ecosystem we are launching for developers in the form of our Amphibian store. I’ll explain how developers (YOU) can rapidly build a Ribbit Flex app or widget, sell it and continue to make money from it. I’ll share with you the details on the growth of our developer community and how Ribbit finally means business for you.
Join me and a number of kick ass Flex developers worthy of your audience. I guarantee you will walk away a better, more educated and informed developer than you are today. For $480, you can’t beat the Flex experience. Roundtrip flights all the way from the Northeast and even the Pacific are still as low as $300 — that’s like a few hours in Flex contract money for most of you, anyway…
Sign up today and I will see you there.
And if you’d like a shot at a Wii, PS3 or xBox 360, enter the API contest now.
360|Flex API Contest – Win a Wii plus admiration and envy of all Flex coders
Contests provide not just cool prizes, but a way to establish (|| re-establish) yourself as a premiere developer in the community. The spotlight on a conference will never be bigger (for Flex developers) than with the upcoming 360|Flex API contest. Winners from the contest will be announced during the conference keynote, have their app shown off live and be awarded the amazing prize in front of the entire Flex community. There are 3 categories sponsored by Ribbit, eBay and Degrafa. Each is handing out a premium game console as the prize!
Never has the stage been bigger, the spotlight been brighter and the expectations been… well, honestly, we don’t know what to expect. Reports are that entries have been thus far pretty low. This means two things:
1) Enter the contest and your chance of winning is much greater.
2) Developers are coding up a storm and waiting until the last minute (Feb. 25) to submit their entry.
Either way, this is the perfect opportunity for you. I have written before about the allure of 360|Flex, now recognized as the most pure and focused Flex conference of the year. I’ll be there making some big Ribbit announcements and our presentation will be killer.
As for the contest, you’ve got to code and enter something — the reward is too much to pass up. Plus, you need not attend the conference to participate.
> Download the Ribbit API and start coding.
> Register for the conference here: http://www.360conferences.com/apicontest/apicontest.cfm
Starting next week, 360|Flex will launch the contest gallery, where all developers can view and vote on the contest entries. We can’t wait to see what you do and look forward to seeing you at 360|Flex.
This post originally appeared at: http://developer.ribbit.com/blog/?p=68
Papervision 3D Training with John Grden, recap
I had the honor of attending a Papervision 3D training course held this past weekend in San Francisco and taught by Master John Grden, of the ir5 order, and pv3d council and outer rim member Andy Zupko.
Both share an infectious enthusiasm for the break-thru open source 3d framework called Papervsion. Their teaching technique, especially John’s, is engaging, embracing, supportive and energetic. They came prepared and distributed CD’s with all the sample files you’d ever want. We bolted through example after example, each one more mind-blowing than the next. As John guided us through adding that ‘extra special line of code’, and once you compiled, you couldn’t believe what YOU had just coded.
I feel a little guilty telling folks I was in training all weekend – mostly because it never felt like training. The only times I looked at my watch were to make sure we weren’t approaching lunch or the end-of-the-day time too soon.
I was equally impressed with the attending class, so capable of keeping up with the fast paced lessons. There were a couple of stragglers on certain exercises, and they were nicely supported by a scampering John in addition to their peers and classmates. No coder was left behind.
These guys are good. They are serious about their code and pushing the envelope of Flash coding for everyone. Such performance should be (and widely is) embraced by the Flash development AND DESIGN community. If you haven’t tasted PV3D, get into it. And if you have the means, I highly recommend attending (even if flying is necessary) their next class.
sites: http://blog.papervision3d.org/, http://www.rockonflash.com/blog, http://blog.zupko.info/
a response to Aral’s Microhoo? post
In response to Aral’s Microhoo? post…
Believe it or not, I think Yahoo! is much less a ‘Flash’ house now than it was when I joined in 2005. Their centerpiece Flash/Flex app, in Yahoo! Maps, was in fact the flagship app for the entire platform. Albeit, it was Flex 1.x, it still represented the largest user base (at 20-30 mil users a month) compared to any other app over a 2 year stretch. The ‘hot’ properties at Yahoo!, namely Flickr, Sports and Local, never really, truly (as in - let’s shift our strategy to) committed to a Flash platform RIA. Only Messenger and Video remain the properties most invested in it – and with an MSFT bid, Video and Messenger, to me, seem like the two properties most likely replaced by MSFT existing technologies in Windows Media and Messenger.
How does this affect the Flash community and Adobe?
For developers, Yahoo!’s API support has been lagging for sometime. Maps, again a flagship API set, has not seen major feature updates in well over a year. Much of Yahoo!’s REST APIs still remain ‘un-Flash-friendly’, a term I used to describe their lack of crossdomain permission. Ironically, the Flash Platform team just officially released their token Flash toolset called “Astra” this week — providing a valuable kit for RIA development but representing little balance to the overwhelmingly successful YUI Ajax components.
Adobe and Yahoo! have been on the mend since Google’s deal to include their toolbar in Flash Player downloads. Case in point – Why has Yahoo! never announced plans for anything AIR? Or Flex 3? Messenger has really been the only ‘major’ app release on Flash Platform technology in some time.
The Adobe Google speculation seems laughable, but Google has been adding Flash technology little by little (and they said it would never be done). Adobe is booming with new partners, especially in SalesForce. Adoptions within these worlds won’t just bring Flash Player downloads (which Adobe seems to get more from MySpace and YouTube these days than Yahoo! anyway), but more developers purchasing applications to build on Flex!
Lastly, with talented Flash developers and friends at Yahoo!, I know all will land on their feet if this deal goes through. And who knows, maybe MSFT will see some light with what success Yahoo! can demonstrate in their Flash Platform oriented properties.
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