Comments on: Adobe: Open Sourcing The Future. HeadFirst into Flex http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/04/27/adobe-open-sourcing-the-future-headfirst-into-flex/ An industry analyst blog looking at software ecosystems and convergence Sat, 22 Nov 2008 16:29:43 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Business Development: Adobe going open source | Commercial Open Source Software http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/04/27/adobe-open-sourcing-the-future-headfirst-into-flex/#comment-360529 Business Development: Adobe going open source | Commercial Open Source Software Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:01:46 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/04/27/adobe-open-sourcing-the-future-headfirst-into-flex/#comment-360529 [...] Governor made it even more clear in his post talking about his customer’s vision: [..] I think the Flex SDK OSS decision says something [...] [...] Governor made it even more clear in his post talking about his customer’s vision: [..] I think the Flex SDK OSS decision says something [...]

]]> By: jgovernor http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/04/27/adobe-open-sourcing-the-future-headfirst-into-flex/#comment-69920 jgovernor Sat, 28 Apr 2007 15:38:32 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/04/27/adobe-open-sourcing-the-future-headfirst-into-flex/#comment-69920 great point Ian. I guess it depends whether you think Adobe is going to immediately hit the brakes. Watching open source as long as I have I know that community effects can take on a life, and momentum of their own. Has Adobe got total free software religion? No it certainly hasn't. Nor should it. But has Adobe come a long way in a short time? I believe it has. I would encourage Adobe to go further. But as someone that has seen Adobe go for de jure PDF standardisation, open source Tamarin, its VM through Mozilla, and now do this, all in space of a few months, I have to call it like i see it. Adobe is opening up. I did point out that CS3 is the real crown jewels. Enterprise is still only 8% of Adobe revenues, so its crown jewels of a smaller base, its true. Perhaps i should not has used that word. Perhaps "strategic asset" would have been more appropriate. great point Ian. I guess it depends whether you think Adobe is going to immediately hit the brakes. Watching open source as long as I have I know that community effects can take on a life, and momentum of their own. Has Adobe got total free software religion? No it certainly hasn’t. Nor should it. But has Adobe come a long way in a short time? I believe it has. I would encourage Adobe to go further. But as someone that has seen Adobe go for de jure PDF standardisation, open source Tamarin, its VM through Mozilla, and now do this, all in space of a few months, I have to call it like i see it. Adobe is opening up. I did point out that CS3 is the real crown jewels. Enterprise is still only 8% of Adobe revenues, so its crown jewels of a smaller base, its true. Perhaps i should not has used that word. Perhaps “strategic asset” would have been more appropriate.

]]> By: Ian S. http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/04/27/adobe-open-sourcing-the-future-headfirst-into-flex/#comment-69903 Ian S. Sat, 28 Apr 2007 13:53:47 +0000 http://www.redmonk.com/jgovernor/2007/04/27/adobe-open-sourcing-the-future-headfirst-into-flex/#comment-69903 James: What you said "The point I wanted to make was that Adobe is outsourcing crown jewels" needs clarification. I don't think they are open sourcing "crown jewels". If you really look into what is going to be open sourced, the part of Flex that is announced to be open sourced does not have revenue attached anyway (It is already free of charge). The parts of Flex that's not going to be open sourced are those parts that have revenue attached to. I think the "crown jewels" are these "revenue generating" parts, not the parts that are not generating revenue. This is definitely a smart move from Adobe - annoucing open sourcing some stuff that does not generate revenue makes even smart people think it is the "crown jewels" getting open sourced. James:

What you said “The point I wanted to make was that Adobe is outsourcing crown jewels” needs clarification. I don’t think they are open sourcing “crown jewels”. If you really look into what is going to be open sourced, the part of Flex that is announced to be open sourced does not have revenue attached anyway (It is already free of charge). The parts of Flex that’s not going to be open sourced are those parts that have revenue attached to.

I think the “crown jewels” are these “revenue generating” parts, not the parts that are not generating revenue.

This is definitely a smart move from Adobe - annoucing open sourcing some stuff that does not generate revenue makes even smart people think it is the “crown jewels” getting open sourced.

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