Notes from the Flex Flash and ColdFusion Trenches - free

Free Flex 4 Training in Chicago

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:22:00 -0400

I'll be giving a free full-day, hands-on training session, where experienced ColdFusion Developers can learn how to build their first Flex application using the latest Flash Builder 4 beta software. This training is designed to help experienced ColdFusion developers get started in understanding how to add rich UI to existing and new ColdFusion applications.

Date / Time Thursday, November 19
Hyatt Regency Chicago on the River Walk,
151 East Wacker Drive,
Chicago, IL 60601
Registration: 8:30am

Registration
http://www.adobe.com/go/flextrainingforcfdevelopers

A Great big pile of public beta's from Adobe

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 22:39:00 -0400

Today, Adobe has released 3 new public beta's on Adobe Labs: The Adobe Integrated Runtime (formerly known as Apollo) beta, the Flex 3 Beta, and the Flash Player Updater were all publicly released on Labs today. I've been recovering from a failed hard drive all day (remind me to post a blog about the wonders of SpinRite 6.0 when i get a minute), but I'll post more about all 3 of these, as well as the ColdFusion 8 (Scorpio) beta released 2 weeks ago, when i get a few minutes.

Open Source Flex 3 SDK

Wed, 02 May 2007 16:53:00 -0400

At midnight, Thursday April 26th at Midnight, Adobe officially announced that the Flex 3 SDK, will be released as an open source project under the Mozilla Public License. The actual timeline for the release looks like this:

Summer 2007 - Daily builds of the Flex 3 SDK will be provided. Online access to the bug base will be publicly available.

Fall 2007 - Flex 3 launches.

December 2007 - After the release of Flex 3, adobe will be posting all software assets into a public Subversion repository for public access.

More information on this can be found in the FAQ, the press release, and the discussion group

Many have asked the questions: "Why would Adobe do this?" and "how is Adobe is going to keep making money from Flex?" While I dont have any inside information about either of these, i do have come conclusions I've drawn on these two...

Why would Adobe do this

The easy, marketing friendly answer to this question is "to grow the platform." Of course, Adobe wants more and more people using the Flex Platform, as it enables them to sell more copies of Flex Builder, Flex Charting, Flex Data Services, etc. Of course, I suspect this may be a bit of a defensive move as well, as it comes on the heels of Microsoft annoucing SilverLight. As Ted Patric notes, Adobe is taking the gloves off in its battle against SilverLight. I think its safe to assume that by open sourcing flex, more developers will adopt it, and it will set a much higher bar for MS.

How is Adobe is going to keep making money from an Open Source Flex 3?

The reality as far as product sales goes, is this is no different than flex 2. In flex 2, there was already a free SDK, which included everything a developer would need to build flex apps. This open source project will provide the same free SDK, just under a different license. As I mentioned before, if Open Sourcing the project attracts new developers, then, additional sales of the commercial flex products (Builder, Charting , Data Services, etc) will likely follow.

Free Flex 2.0 !?!

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 15:00:00 -0400

According to several sources, including News.com and Christian Cantrell's (Product Manager for Developer Relations at Macromedia/Adobe) blog, as well as the FAQ on Adobe Labs when Flex 2.0 is released, there will also be a free version of the SDK available. Is seems the key difference with the Free vs the full version is the inclusion of the Flex Builder IDE.

It seems as if anyone comfortable working with command line compilers can use an IDE of their choice, and compile their Flex apps for free with this SDK.

Very cool and exciting news!