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Adobe to deliver AIR for Linux (eWeek)Adobe to deliver AIR for Linux (eWeek)Posted Feb 29, 2008 17:46 UTC (Fri) by zooko (subscriber, #2589)Parent article: Adobe to deliver AIR for Linux (eWeek)
A lot of the comments here seem to be unaware of the Rich Internet Application (RIA) story. The idea is to make apps which are as easy to use as web pages, while being as powerful as traditional local apps. It's likely to be a very important class of apps in the future (notice that a lot of people do more and more of their work on web pages instead of local apps). Adobe AIR is one of a handful of contestants for the infrastructure for RIAs.
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Adobe to deliver AIR for Linux (eWeek) Posted Feb 29, 2008 21:44 UTC (Fri) by felixrabe (subscriber, #50514) [Link] > The idea is to make apps which are as easy to use as web pages In terms of ease-of-use, there are web pages that are as badly designed as bad apps.
Adobe to deliver AIR for Linux (eWeek) Posted Feb 29, 2008 21:45 UTC (Fri) by felixrabe (subscriber, #50514) [Link] ... which means: I don't necessarily see the advantage for the user here; it's only one for the developer.
Adobe to deliver AIR for Linux (eWeek) Posted Mar 1, 2008 1:40 UTC (Sat) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link] I think making easy to use 'rich web pages' is exceptionally hard. Very few people even get close to getting it right. It's trying to get the WWW to be something it never was suppose to be. Www is designed to use 'REST' and it's a very very good design. But it's not intended to do what people are trying to do with it. If it was not for the fact that the majority of people are stuck with Microsoft Windows then we would be able to do some very cool stuff with network-based applications. The reason people are trying to take WWW in directions it never was suppose to go is because http is the only protocol that can penetrate Microsoft's desktop in any appreciable way. I mean, seriously.. A easy example for remote running applications we already have a terrific protocol: X11. It's totally networked based and it works very well. With compositing and vector based-displays it is even very close to possible to have X work with good speed over the internet. I know I've used X over the internet and it works passably well. Better performance then any Javascript abortion that will take a 4ghz machine to it's knees. With NX compression you get even better. With some fundamental improvements to security X can be a workable solution to deploying remote applications widespread over a network. You get very rich set of tools and thousands and thousands of very high quality applications already support it. I know there are lots of problems with that approach. But it's just a simple example. There are other things like Croquet that are very cool. But it does not matter because Microsoft will never allow that to penetrate it's hegemony. So people are trying to reproduce everything we essentialy already have with _browser_plugins_. Because IE is allowed to support that. It's just that bad.
Adobe to deliver AIR for Linux (eWeek) Posted Mar 1, 2008 2:07 UTC (Sat) by zooko (subscriber, #2589) [Link] Look at it this way: have you noticed that a whole lot of people don't use mail user agent applications anymore? They use web mail. Which means: they use a web app. Same with on-line banking. Same with calendaring. When will it end? Google is currently deploying spreadsheets, word processors, collaboration apps, etc. as web apps. Why do you suppose people tend to flock to web apps instead of local apps? I'm not sure, myself, but I think comparing the technical advantages of X or Gtk to HTTP or JavaScript is probably not getting anywhere close to the answer.
Adobe to deliver AIR for Linux (eWeek) Posted Mar 1, 2008 8:27 UTC (Sat) by jordanb (subscriber, #45668) [Link] Well they're not 'flocking' to them for the spiffy interface. The appeal is that these services are on the internet and accessible from anywhere. I agree with the OP, the advantage is networked smart server/dumb client architecture, AJAX is just a really piss-poor implementation of that on the Web, because that's the only way to do it with windows. Taking web interfaces and chaining them to the desktop is combining the disadvantages of both systems, as far as the user is concerned. At best this is a way for web monkeys to write desktop applications without having to learn GTK. That's the beginning and the end of the usefulness of this.
Adobe to deliver AIR for Linux (eWeek) Posted Mar 1, 2008 16:57 UTC (Sat) by felixrabe (subscriber, #50514) [Link] Funny that you mention GTK, because I did almost mention (Py)GTK too, but then decided to reduce my post to the absolutely necessary minimum :)
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