Flex 2 Apps on Linux!!!

2006-10-06 (Last Modified: 2006-10-06)

One of the benefits of working for Adobe is that I get to test new products while they are still in the pre-release state. One night a few weeks ago I was able to install a pre-alpha build of Flash Player 9 on Linux. I couldn’t contain my excitement when I pulled up my first Flex 2 app on my Gentoo laptop. Smiling from ear to ear I ran over to Emmy Huang (who, as usual, was still working at 7pm), and I thanked her. And the next day I also had the chance to thank Mike Melanson, Tinic Uro who are also investing a lot of time making Flash Player 9 on Linux a reality. Many others at Adobe are also working hard to get the public beta out the door. Most Flex 2 apps I have tested are working, but there are still frequent browser crashes and other bugs that the team needs to fit before we can send a beta out the door. But we are close and I can’t wait to watch the very eager Linux community get their hands on Flash Player 9.

Flex 2 and Flash Player 9 are changing how the world builds and experiences web applications. Now we have a ubiquitous and consistent virtual machine to run real applications in. And we have an amazing programming model and SDK to build those applications with. Best of all, it’s all free (as in beer)! I have been working with JBoss on a Flex based collaboration client and the results have been stunning. It’s beautiful, extremely fast, and as soon as Flash Player 9 on Linux debuts it will work the same on any OS or browser, without any “if IE” workarounds! When Apollo is available this will get even more interesting since we can take the same collaboration client application and run it offline, without the browser! Just to further drench Linux users appetites for Flash Player 9 here is a screenshot of the JBoss Collaboration Client running in Flash Player 9 on Linux:

Amazingly it actually works without any problems and looks exactly the same on Linux as it does on Mac and Windows! Write once, debug once, run anywhere actualized! (By “debug once” I am of-course referring to only having to debug on one OS and one browser.) This is the future of web applications!