04.21.10
Adobe Turns to Linux After Apple Snub
Summary: As Apple pulls the switch on many developers, towards Linux/Android they begin to march
ADOBE was blocked by Apple due to Apple’s infinite arrogance (Adobe also ditched Windows Mobile, but that’s another story). Other developers state publicly that they are sick of Apple, announcing that they will ditch Apple for future development. Meanwhile there’s Adobe’s other side, which has already warmed up to the Linux Foundation and even to LiMo. Perlow said that Adobe should rely on Linux to spread its binaries and Microsoft's booster Tim Anderson says that “Adobe [is] no longer investing in Flash compiler for iPhone, sings Android praises” (Android and Linux may soon be re-merged at the kernel level).
Chambers spends much of his post saying how well Flash runs on Android – though Flash Player 10.1 and AIR 2.0 for Android are still in beta – and suggesting that Flash developers target Android instead.
“The fact that Apple would make such a hostile and despicable move like this clearly shows the difference between our two companies,” wrote one of Adobe’s employees, whose even ruder words generated some bad-looking headlines that had Adobe distance itself from his statements quite quickly. He spoke passionately and that’s just fine. That was a few weeks ago.
It is possible that the Mono boosters will also aim their Microsoft wares at Android now that Android is growing faster than any other mobile platform (depending on the source/s of the claim). We already know that they are doing this [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9].
Given the continued stream of news about Apple’s exclusion of Mono [1, 2, 3, 4], focus on this strategy may be inevitable, but Novell’s Microsoft MVP is still fighting to control Apple platforms with Microsoft APIs.
Novell VP and Mono project lead Miguel de Icasa isn’t worried that MonoTouch might fall under Apple’s new restrictions that banned Adobe’s Flash-to-iPhone compiler. He just announced the release of MonoTouch 3.0, which adds support for iPhoneOS 4.0′s new APIs. MonoTouch compiles C# to C and XCode (the iPhone IDE), unlike the Flash CS5 compiler, which compiles to machine code. Still, MonoTouch apps are originally written in a language other than the ones listed in the new iPhone terms, so like any iPhone app, it just depends on the whim of Apple. MonoTouch 3.0 was quick to add support for Multitasking, iAds, Game Center, and enterprise data protection.
As The Source points out, there are almost no Mono applications that use MonoTouch anyway. To quote:
After the whole Apple 3.3.1 “Can’t develop with non-approved toolchains” debacle a lot of people set up a Google Docs spreadsheet to list the tons of amazing apps that would be impacted by this rule change.
[...]
The numbers are even less impressive if you wished to focus on a single toolchain of interest, like say – oh I don’t know – MonoTouch, which can boast almost a whole dozen entries on the spreadsheet.
Over at the SD Times (which loves Microsoft and has Microsoft as a prominent advertiser based on what the PDFs of the magazine show), professional Microsoft booster Larry O’Brien has this new piece defending Microsoft and Mono while denouncing Apple. This is typical. We have seen just about any proponent of Microsoft doing this and only a week ago we saw David Worthington and O’Brien chatting with one another about how horrible it is that Apple blocks Mono. It’s very unprofessional when two writers from the same magazine quote one another when both basically hold the same position.
Anyway, MonoTouch is being blocked [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] and the future of it seems uncertain. On the desktop, the situation is similar, but a Canonical employee has this application which is one among others that make people dependent on Mono. As we noted yesterday, Canonical's CTO is at least aware of the problems with Mono. █
your_friend said,
April 21, 2010 at 7:28 pm
Google should use its position to make some fundamental changes at Adobe or simply ignore them. Adobe’s DMCA takedown of a free software flash player is sufficient reason to avoid everything from the company. This news was mentioned by Slashdot at the time [2]. Apple and Adobe are equally vicious non free software owners. Google, thorough it’s ownership of the most popular flash serving websites, has the power to make changes for the better. A move to Ogg Theora and html 5 would eliminate one of the biggest barriers to free software migration. It would also make it much easier for Google and other companies to provide video to ARM, Mips and other non Intel platforms that are so much better for mobile applications. This is the future of personal computing, Adobe and Flash are the retarding hand of the past.
Yuhong Bao Reply:
April 21st, 2010 at 8:41 pm
“Adobe’s DMCA takedown of a free software flash player”
That is not a free software flash player, it is a RTMP dumping utility.
Charles Oliver Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 6:30 am
Never mind, the nice guys at mplayer appear to be developing it
http://rtmpdump.mplayerhq.hu/
It may not be a player but it enables the playing of video. Without get_iplayer (http://linuxcentre.net/getiplayer, now discontinued), which used rtmpdump or flvstreamer (until the BBC added the flash pings to stop flvstreamer working) I’ve had no easy way to watch iPlayer content.
It does seem like the sweet spot for viewing content without the problems associated with flash has gone.
I should point out that I have nothing against flash, as such, it’s allowed rich media on web pages years before the talk of html5 and when used in moderation can be useful but it doesn’t play videos very well down my connection, which means I needs a method of buffering the video and rtmpdump works for that.
Charles Oliver Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 7:01 am
get_iplayer seems to have resurfaced here, as prometheus
http://github.com/jjl/get_iplayer
Which I guess shows the advantage of FLOSS. Wonder what would happen if Adobe went down.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:50 am
Adobe has been around for ages. Microsoft used to try to imitate them decades ago (I have a book about it).
Adobe is one company Microsoft never managed to kill.
your_friend Reply:
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:54 pm
Non free software apologists always distract from the bad behavior of software owners. Even here, there are echos of their propaganda: pointless hair splitting and foolish gratitude. We should never be grateful to software owners for things that we can do better in freedom that those owners deny us.
If Adobe would take down RTMP Dump, they will take down any free software player. Technically, RTMPDump is not a free software Flash player, it is the vital component of any such beast. Like DeCSS is the vital component of any free software DVD player, RTMP stream handling is fundamental to Flash playing with or without encryption. Adobe has viciously attacked RTMP Dump as a tool for “piracy” using the nasty laws they helped establish in the US.
Adobe should not be forgiven because the project can thrive in countries with more reasonable laws. Adobe works hand in glove with companies like Microsoft that are trying to push ACTA, a law that’s even worse than the DMCA, on everyone.
Adobe’s Flash player has always been a form of malware. It has been used to track users for advertisers, forces users to watch advertisement, and eradicates fair use of media played through it. Non free flash players are obnoxious vehicles for advertising and intrusion.
It is shameful to grovel at Adobe’s feet for their malware. Adobe, Apple and Microsoft have perverted web standards away from free software alternatives for nearly a decade. It is time for independent publishers to do what Wikipedia has done.
Yuhong Bao said,
April 22, 2010 at 8:36 pm
I think it would be best to say “Linux-based Android” if you want to remind people that Android is Linux-based.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Reply:
April 22nd, 2010 at 8:39 pm
OK, that sounds reasonable.
uberVU - social comments said,
April 24, 2010 at 8:09 am
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This post was mentioned on Identica by schestowitz: #Adobe Turns to !Linux After #Apple Snub http://techrights.org/2010/04/21/linux-android-win-after-apple-block/...