Open Source Flex (MPL)

<Update>
It’s worth taking a look at Ed Burnette’s take on this at ZDNet: “Adobe keeps Flash, Flex close to the vest.”

Although I am certainly happy to see Adobe moving in the direction of open source, it is good to more closely at the overall picture: what is being open sourced and what is not, which is exactly what Burnette does.

I guess it’s really just a question of “getting it” relative to others. The Flash player is still a closed platform, but at least it is available for Linux, unlike Silverlight.

</update>
—
Adobe seems increasingly to “get it” when it comes to enabling the modern web application environment, leveraging the strengths of the Flash player on all those dekstops, and allowing enough openness for creativity to flourish.

The latest example of which is the announcement this morning that they have open sourced the Flex SDK – compiler, libraries, and all. (Everything but the Eclipse-based IDE, which remains under a commercial license).

In the following video from the PodTech network, Ely Greenfield and David Wadhwani discuss the announcement with Robert Scoble:

Related links:

• Adobe to Open Source Flex (Adobe Labs)
• Adobe to Open Source Flex (press release at Yahoo! Finance)
• Adobe to Open Source Flex (at John Newton’s Content Log)