Are there any more controversial words in technology than “open” and “free”? We’re not really qualified to analyze the deeper meaning of Adobe’s announcement that they plan to “Open Source Flex” but we’re very entertained by the diversity of public reaction, as lovingly chronicled by JD here and here. (Note: if JD makes the mistake of linking to THIS post, we’ll have what’s known in the biz as a “link loop”, and the internet will melt. Start backing up your files now just in case.)

Ryan Stewart does his usual excellent job of analyzing this news (and providing more links). And if you’re after nothing but the facts, here is Adobe’s press release and FAQ.

Our informal tally of reactions from Flashforward speaker-bloggers leads us to the (obvious) conclusion that this is an exciting and welcome move. As with any open source project, the tangible outcome will depend on what developers choose to contribute, but given the historically open spirit of the Flash and Flex communities, it’s easy to predict great things.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 11:53 am and is filed under Culture, Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.