Well put, Guy. I think it was Dave Winer who described the internet as the "platform without a platform vendor". Flash is not that. I don't know how FutureWhatever made their money, but you're not going to see Apple, Microsoft or Adobe promoting a platform without some effort to monetize it.
Apple has angered developers on many occasions through the years. Bundled apps reduce opportunities. On the other hand, larger market share makes them happy. You just have to stay out of the way of the platform vendor, partner with them, or hope to be bought. Adobe will presumably try to monetize Flex through services (consulting), tools (Flexbuilder) and applications (Buzzword). I haven't looked at the Scene7 stuff yet, but if it's a solution for a particular niche (e-commerce, say), then that's not going to worry someone using Flex to develop a game. And if it's an extensible system, it might even open a new marketplace. - Richard (full disclosure: I worked at both Apple and Adobe and am quite partial to both companies, as companies go) On Thu, Aug 28, 2008 at 2:14 PM, Guy Morton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi Robert > > I agree that there is something vaguely distasteful about Adobe becoming a > competitor to its developers (which Scene7 seems to be), however I also > doubt that this is likely in the foreseeable future to have a significant > impact on any of us. However, it is definitely worth letting Adobe know that > we are watching closely and that developer loyalty is earned, not a given. > > Although this list is primarily to discuss code, I think it's valid to have > an occasional post like this that discusses Flex's place in the market > relative to competing products, as we are all making an investment in this > technology and therefore have a stake in its success. > > Given the volume of email this list generates, I think the occasional > thread like this should be tolerated. I don't like to see people being > howled down by a vocal few who think they know what's best for the silent > majority and I don't see any need to be rude to anyone by using expressions > that could be interpreted as personal insults. > > I also think if you start a thread like this you need to be mindful that it > will be seen as off-topic by many on the list and so should be kept brief > and to the point. When your topic becomes a personal crusade it's time to > take it off-list. > > Guy > > > > On 29/08/2008, at 6:18 AM, Robert Thompson wrote: > > First of all, this is very relevant to the FLEX coders development > community. > > > >
