> While they each have their strengths (see Greg's post), I prefer AJAX > when applicable, even with this GPL announcement. It can do *almost* > everything Flash and Java can do, but with a more open architecture.
That isn't quite true. Flash can play video, move vector based images around (in a cross browser way), play sound, and on. Applets can maintain a pipe back to the server. Both Flash and Java can be arbitrarily designed with an large amounts of prebuilt widgets. Once built they run the same everywhere that has the correct plugin. AJAX can't do any of that (not without massive amounts of hacking). That being said, I still currently prefer AJA (minus the X) over Flash and Applets. > To me, as an Open Source advocate, I have to prefer anything that > promotes others to take my code and improve it. Despite Java being > OSS, the code is still protected from the end user without the person > who wrote it openly providing it. I prefer something that openly > allows others to see what I wrote and how. AJAX applications by definition have a portion of code that resides on the server. That portion is almost never Open. > However, if it were a "crown-jewels" type of thing where I wanted to > protect my source as a company, maybe Java would be a viable > alternative, being open source. I would probably then choose it over > Flash, because of the GPL. As I said in an earlier post - there WILL be other technologies that address some of these problems better than the current crop of solutions. Paul /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
