Adobe Delivers Two New Flash-Focused Open Source Technologies
by Sam Dean - Jul. 21, 2009Comments (0)- Related Blog Posts
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Today, Adobe announced two new Adobe Flash Platform open source initiatives aimed at developers, media companies and publishers. The two new technologies being open sourced are designed to help content publishers and developers build Rich Internet Applications (RIA), and Microsoft is focusing on the same goal with its Silverlight technology. Silverlight is competitive with Flash, although Flash is much more entrenched. (For example, Adobe claims that more than 80 percent of video hosted online is Flash-based.)
The two technologies being released as open source are: 1) Open Source Media Framework (OSMF), previously code-named Strobe, which allows developers to build customized media players based on the Adobe Flash Platform; and 2) Text Layout Framework (TLF), which developers can use to bring customized typography capabilities to web applications.
Akamai is partnered with Adobe on an Open Video Player initiative, based on OSMF technologies. According to a statement from Adobe:
"The goal is to ensure a consistent framework for media player development that enables developers,publishers, content owners, corporations and others to more quickly and easily build new video players that create and sustain profitable new business models. By providing all the components for media player development, the combined efforts will help strengthen the industry shift towards open standards."
Adobe claims that its Text Layout Framework (TLF) "goes beyond what is possible for Web text layout using HTML and CSS technologies today, with support for complex languages, bidirectional text, multi-columns and other advanced typographical features and controls." You can find examples of TLF in online applications in The New York Times' Times Reader and The Boston Globe's Globe Reader, both of which are Adobe Air applications.
Not all of Adobe's Flash platform is open source (although Flex and the Tamarin virtual machine are), but it's wise for the company to open source critical components, because Microsoft is pushing forward aggressively with its proprietary Silverlight effort, which competes with Flash. Developers stand a strong chance of favoring the most flexible, customizable platform for Rich Internet Applications available, which is where modular open source components can make a big difference.
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