Adobe Systems Incorporated today announced plans to release source code for Adobe Flex as open source. This initiative will let developers worldwide participate in the growth of the industry’s most advanced framework for building cross-operating system rich Internet applications (RIAs) for the Web and enabling new Apollo applications for the desktop. The open source Flex SDK and documentation will be available under the Mozilla Public License (MPL).
Available since June 2006, the free Adobe Flex SDK includes the technologies developers need to build effective Flex applications, including the MXML™ compiler and the ActionScript™ 3.0 libraries that make up the popular Flex framework. Together, these elements provide the modern, standards-based language and programming model used by leading businesses such as BMC Software, eBay, salesforce.com, Scrapblog, and Samsung to create RIAs deployed on the ubiquitous Adobe Flash® Player.
“Open source has been pivotal to the rapid growth of Alfresco, and it’s great to see Adobe take a similar approach to Flex technology,” said John Newton, CTO of Alfresco. “We’ve been very interested in using the Flex SDK to put a more usable and engaging face on enterprise content management, and this move by Adobe makes that all the more attractive.”
This announcement expands on Adobe’s commitment to open technology initiatives, including the contribution of source code for the ActionScript Virtual Machine to the Mozilla Foundation under the Tamarin project, the use of the open source WebKit engine in the “Apollo” project, and the release of the full PDF 1.7 specification for ISO standardization. By committing to releasing Flex source code to developers as open source, Adobe is embracing collaboration with the worldwide developer community and enabling other open source projects to take full advantage of the powerful capabilities of the Flex framework.
“Open source co-creation is a powerful way to build a strong development community,” said James Governor, Founder of RedMonk. “Adobe’s decision to open source the Flex SDK is a radical move which should attract a new class of developer to the platform.”
Using the MPL for open sourcing Flex will allow full and free access to source code. Developers will be able to freely download, extend, and contribute to the source code for the Flex compiler, components and application framework. Adobe also will continue to make the Flex SDK and other Flex products available under their existing commercial licenses, allowing both new and existing partners and customers to choose the license terms that best suit their requirements.
“The definition and evolution of Flex has been influenced by our incredibly talented developer community from day one,” said David Mendels, senior vice president, Enterprise and Developer Business Unit at Adobe. “The decision to open source Flex was a completely natural next step. I am incredibly excited to deeply collaborate with the developer community on Flex, and further fuel its momentum and innovation.”
The open source licensing of Flex is part of an initiative to engage the community in the creation of Flex technology. Starting this summer with the pre-release versions of the next release of the Flex product line, code named “Moxie,” Adobe will post daily software builds of the Flex SDK on a public download site with a public bug database. The release of open source Flex under the MPL will occur in conjunction with the final release of Moxie, currently scheduled for the second half of 2007.
For more information on the terms of the MPL and how to contribute to the open source Flex initiative, please visit www.adobe.com/go/opensourceflex