In A Flash, The Chains Are Off
May 1st, 2008 by Justin Ryan
In a somewhat surprising move, Adobe has decided to remove restrictions from its market-dominating Flash format, making development and closer integration of Flash applications possible for the first time.
Previously, Adobe's licensing terms for Flash prevented developers from creating competing Flash players — they could use the Flash specification to integrate flash with their applications, but couldn't provide non-Adobe playback. That's changed, as Adobe is now publishing it's specifications without restriction, including the Flash Cast and AMP protocols, the API for Flash Player, and will not require licensing fees when the next version of Flash Player and Adobe AIR is released towards the end of 2008.
Adobe is quick to point out that they are only removing licensing restrictions, not Open Sourcing their code — developers will be free to incorporate, but not change, Adobe's code. Still, the move is groundbreaking, as it will allow projects like Gnash to access and build off of the official specifications, bolstering the viability of Open Source implementations for Flash.
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Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
Visit Linux Journal on IRC.
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Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
Visit Linux Journal on IRC.
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THANK YOU, MICROSOFT! Yes, I'm serious!
On May 1st, 2008 Sum Yung Gai (not verified) says:
Believe me, times that I can thank Microsoft are few and far between these days. But today sees one of those times.
If it hadn't been for Silverlight immediately and directly threatening Flash, Adobe wouldn't ever have done this. Adobe know what happened to Netscape and every other proprietary software company that Microsoft challenged. They got steamrolled by Redmond. The list is littered with Borlands, Lotuses, Ashton-Tates, WordPerfect Corporations, etc. Apple would've been roadkill too if MS hadn't bailed 'em out in the late 1990's to look good for the anti-trust suit.
Adobe should've known better from the start, though. They released the PDF specs long ago. The result: there are tons of PDF readers, virtually everyone has one. We can even *create* PDF readers and not use Adobe's product. But Adobe still sell soooo many copies of Adobe Acrobat that it makes my head spin. It's called "value-add."
Here's another reason Adobe should've known better: their experience with PostScript. They wanted to play PostScript too close to their chest as well, and that's how TrueType came to be (MS and Apple). TrueType/OpenType owns the desktop, you don't see PostScript anymore except in niche markets. And on the UNIX side, you had Ghostscript making Adobe's offering irrelevant.
--SYG