Ok, for those of you who have been paying attention to rich internet application development, we fundamentally know that Flex 2 development is XML template for having a server-side process compile a SWF in near real time. This basically means that a flex MXML file is basically just a set of instructions for how a SWF should be created, including actionscript wrapped in CDATA tags in the XML (imagine a Flash project decompiled into a set of XML tags.) Well, Adobe decided at the end of last month to completely Open Source the entire Flex 2 solution, as a part of the Mozilla project, including the server-side Java code that dynamically creates SWFs. A long time ago they Open Sourced the SWF file format (I remember that was when Corel Draw Suite, specifically their animated-gif timeline tool, all of a sudden could output to SWF.) and now they are Open Sourcing the server-side code that builds the Flex files into SWFs.
There shouldn't be any more complaining from purist web geeks about Flash on the web. Technically, they could go read through the Open Source Flex Project and create their own Flash SWF Compilers. This is as open as open gets. The only thing Adobe could do now is to give away the Flash Development tools, which would be rediculous.
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Flex:Open_Source
Adobe has thrown down the gauntlet. If "open source" really just means free to you, then you will be relegated to a back seat on the ride that is the web. If you don't want to buy the Flash development environments from Adobe then you should team up with some people and build your own "free flash content creation tool" based on the Open Source reality of Flash. My goodness. Adobe has taught you how to fish. Does the world need to catch you a fish and feed you as well, hand to mouth?
Even though we know it is happening in FireFox (Firefox will have native support for running actionscript in the browser instead of writing javascript), if IE implements that as well, I see the end of javascript, we would have been completely right about fjax (as a concept/idea) and rich internet applications will be the new norm.
Traditional HTML tagging embedded in a text document will be viewed as "something we did once when the web was far less dynamic." For those who are exhausted by the forever steep learning curve that is the web industry, buckle up (and read my last blog). We are just getting started and those who do not "enhance" will be left behind ("left behind" is a fairly long curve in itself. I am willing to guess that one has about two years to ignor the trends before one has to go find a new industry to stagnate in.)
For more info on Flex Open Source, check out: http://flex.org
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