Sergiy Shychynov (Sergei Shichinov) Kiev, Ukraine Flex/JavaScript blog (JavaScript, Flex, ActionScript, AS3, AIR) | http://www.linkedin.com/in/shichinov | http://shichinov.moikrug.ru

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

questions about flex - flash

just quotqtion:
Trent Weber wrote:

David,

There are a few key points that you failed to highlight which is causing the community concern:

1. Adobe had massive layoffs and is in the process of restructuring. We do not know which organizations were affected although we do know a key adobe air employee was reassigned to something else.
2. Adobe announces that they are focusing on html5 as the future
3. Adobe buys phonegap which is a competing product to adobe air. Initially it seemed like a complementary product until the recent html5 hyper-focus.
4. Adobe gives flex to the spoon community
5. Adobe states that they are going to add flash player functionality to the browser webkit in order to improve html5
6. Adobe states that they are going to focus many of their developers on html5.
7. Adobe discontinues flash for mobile devices (This is the least important issue)

The above issues raise the following concerns:
Concern 1. How long is Adobe Air going to be supported and improved if Adobe is focusing on html5 and developers have been moved to other things?
Concern 2. How long is the flash player for desktop going to be supported and improved if Adobe is trying to get the flash player features added to the webkit and developers have been moved to other things?
Concern 3. What is going to happen to flex in the long run especially if developers have been moved to other things?
Concern 4. How am I going to maintain my existing products if adobe stops supporting Adobe Air or Flash Player?
Concern 5: What would I migrate to if something did happen? Is there even an acceptable transition path or is my code useless?
Concern 6: Do I start any new projects in Adobe Air, Flex, Flash or do I cut my losses right now?

The above concerns could be partially addressed if the following was done:
Resolution 1. An Adobe Air road map or, at least, a guaranteed time frame in which Adobe Air will be around.
Resolution 2: A Flash Player road map or, at least, a guaranteed time frame in which flash player for the desktop will be around. Marketing dollars should also be spent to say that flash is still alive and will be here for the long run.
Resolution 3: A road map of the future regarding flex
Resolution 4: Some sort of guaranteed time frame for Adobe Air.
Resolution 5: Some sort of migration path from Flex/Actionscript to html5.
Resolution 6: The resolution of this concern depends on the above concerns.

So far the information we have received from Adobe has been somewhat vague. In addition, Adobe is currently going through a restructuring process with the layoffs which makes them slower to respond which only increases our concern. At this time lack of information is kind of causing folks to assume the worst and they appear to be acting accordingly.

I should mention that Adobe has answered some of the above concerns but conflicting information from Adobe is causing those answers to be viewed with a sliver of doubt. For example, adobe’s commitment to flash while the quarterly filing states something like their  focused is html5.

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