[Tfug] Adobe on Linux

[Robert Hunter]

On undefined, Jim Secan <jim at nwra.com> wrote:
> I'm curious to see the responses to this.  I had hoped to be a "Linux
>  only" operation for the past several years.  Where I expect to end up now
>  is a mix of OS X for the desktop and Linux for command-line
>  power-computing and instrument control.  I've given up on the Linux
>  desktop, but it has other things I like for general computer use.  Any
>  good craftsman has more than one tool in the old toolbox.


Jim, I very much agree with your last statement.  I don't subscribe to
the Procrustean school of thought, i.e., one size fits all;  however,
the author of this article never offers even one example to support
his tenuous claims of usability.  After reading the article, I was a
bit skeptical about AIR, and the author's understanding of technical
subjects.

"...animation can be powered by either Flash or Javascript."

Red herring!  Flash is based on ECMAScript, so distinguishing it from
Javascript has very little linguistic value.  Furthermore, Javascript
animation is quite limited in comparison too Flash, therefore this
statement has little functional value.

"AIR apps also gain ... direct read-write access to the computer's file system."

Right about now, you should be hearing alarms and sirens.   The
inability of web-based applications to read/write your file-system
willy-nilly is not a technical limitation, but rather a security
mechanism.  You can, in fact, grant certain applications, such as Java
applets, permission to do so, but this is not default behavior.

"These [AIR] apps also retain one important characteristic of their
browser-based counterparts -- cross platform support. This is the bit
that's expected to give a boost to Linux."

Wow, cross-platform web-based applications!  What an innovative idea!
Thank you, Adobe!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XUL

Forgive my cynicism, but this article is not much more than marketing hype.


PS. Kudos to Christopher and Chris Hill for their excellent posts.
Wired should hire you guys.

--Rob