Apr 26

Flex opensourced: the battle of the giants. Towards a new Rich Client?

AJAX, ClientTechnologies, TechnologyNo Comments

So, just few days after Microsoft announced its SilverLight platform, Adobe answered making Flex an Open Source platform. I suggest you have a look at Scoble’s page “Adobe opensources Flex“, especially for the two videos he recorded with some of the Adobe thinking heads.

Wow! How things are changing fast!

There is one consideration that I want to make here. Now, both Adobe and Microsoft have the following approach to their flagship UI technology:

Microsoft Adobe
Express - Entry Point SilverLight Flex
Full Product Vista -
Windows Presentation
Foundation		 Apollo
  • An “entry point” offer, freely available or even Open Sourced, which paves the road to the flagship product.
  • In both cases, the technology behind is the same (MXML/ActionScript for Adobe and XAML for Microsoft). In both cases, the technology behind is Declarative!
  • In both cases, the Entry Point offer is helping making more popular, especially with developers, the technology, so that it can be more used as the basis for building applications using the Full Product version.
  • in both cases, the Entry Point makes a tactical use of the Browser (at least, in the Full Product version the browser is not playing the important role that we are used to)
  • in both cases, AJAX is used as a programming approach instead than as the overarching foundation.

    • Apr 26

    SilverLight

    AJAX, ClientTechnologies, Flex, RIA, SilverLight, Technology, WPF1 Comment

    I have been reading about SilverLight, the new technology from Microsoft that has been labeled as the Flash-Killer.
    What I find interesting is that the positioning of SilverLight on respect to Windows Presentation Foundation (and Vista in general) from Microsoft seems, to me, very similar to the positioning of Flex with respect to Apollo from Adobe..

    It is very much another example of a client-side container that replaces the role played by the Browser so far. With this move, not only Microsoft provides container functuionalities inside the Operating System itself (WPF) but, also, provides an “express version” of it (SilverLight), which does not require Vista and that can work on the Mac.

    I am still unclear why Microsoft does not also target Linux. But, probably, there will be someone who will do on their behalf….