There is now a Linux version of the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) an approach to applications through Flash that can run on a desktop or in a browser. Also Adobe have joined the Linux Foundation and will be part of a meeting on collaboration. This could be significant for co-operatives and open source fans, more below. But first, what is it about AIR that gets so much attention from Adobe?
Michael Calore on a Wired blog looks back to an earlier AIR release and a quote from Kevin Lynch, recently appointed Chief Technology Officer for Adobe.
"AIR could open up a very fertile ground for applications to come to Linux and deliver great user experiences on Linux -- even without people intentionally making them for Linux. So that is potentially a very disruptive thing. We'll see what happens."
As background Calore suggests that 'Linux, long suffering from the "designed by geeks for geeks" syndrome, has largely been left with unintuitive, difficult to use applications that are at best carbon-copies of their Mac or Windows counterparts.'
Whatever you make of this take on 'carbon copies', there is some potential here. One example of how AIR could work is the recently released Photoshop Express. This is written in FLEX so only works online. In theory there could be an AIR version later that would work outside the browser but there is still some uncertainty around how the marketing department will arrange for segmentation. The beta is free at the moment and although it is USA only it is working from the UK, even if slowly. The copyright arrangements are a bit of a stretch so don't load up anything you might want to claim some rights to.
Back to what this implies for co-ops and open source. Whatever doubts there are about Adobe, this is worth a look. There are other approaches to a world of animation and video online. The next Libre Graphics Meeting is in May and the presentation standards seem ok. Blender offers a trailer that could reach an audience with no interest in operating systems whatsoever.
Previously the Chief Technology Officer for Adobe was John Warnock, associated with Postscript and PDF. My guess is that this era of technology is no longer of much interest for Adobe even though it still generates a base of income. PDF is soon to be an ISO standard although there appears to be no announcement about an open source version of Acrobat. My own interest is still mostly in the world of flat pages so most of this site will continue to be about PDF. Usually older technologies get cheaper so there is still a way to go on the prices for server software linked to PDF. There is not much publicity for MARS, a project to rewrite PDF as XML friendly. This also has scope for linking to data and open source.
The Acrobat Services site will continue to look at commercial aspects of Acrobat. There is a possible case for LiveCycle software if there is a budget available and a clear advantage over open source options.
The site will be updated during 2008 with recent examples and links. Comments and suggestions are welcome.
New Feb 2008
Adobe have launched Integrated Runtime (AIR) so it could become clearer how documents can work with Flash. Meanwhile Scribd have a simple system that seems to work. Example of Suma recipes.
So during 2008 there could be clarity on how to work with XML, open source, and advertising models. Google Docs may not be a co-op but repays study. It looks like Scribd is going a similar route. Other options may be open.
New 2007 May 25th
This site currently concentrates on XML and open source. The aim is still to connect co-operation and PDF. Adobe seem mostly concerned with Flash. There is almost no attention for Mars, an XML/SVG take on PDF. Even if XML could only cope with text and data, this limitation could still suit many purposes. A presentation (about 5 meg) by Jim King to the PDF University covered both Mars and Apollo, a future form of Flash. He points out that Mars is of interest to people working with open source. PDF is an open standard, more so now than previously as Adobe have requested ISO to take it over.
Google now offer a Docs service for online word-processing that saves as PDF. Open Office offers more design and the same PDF option.
Scribus is an open source approach to desktop publishing. They save to PDF or PDF/x a standard for printing. Future plans include better links to the Open Document Format.
See story for OhmyNews about the Libre Graphics Meeting in Montreal.
Adobe seem to be leaving the world of flat documents behind. It could be a good time for the co-op scene to look again at open source and make some connections.
Notes on how to
finance PDF production
Couple of PDFs relating to open source
Rough version of a Reader from Open Congress