JD on EP

Disclaimer: This is just John talking... I'm influenced by what I learn at Adobe but am not an official speaker. I'm also working with very preliminary information, so questions and corrections in comments would be greatly welcomed, thanks.

(Q) Does the Chumby include an actual Adobe Flash Lite 2.0 engine?
(A) Yes it does, it's not just a "Lite-like" clone engine with partial functionality. The Chumby folk licensed the Adobe code, ported it to their device, and passed quality checks from Adobe. It's legit.

(Q) Why didn't Adobe staffers mention anything about this over the weekend?
(A) Not many of us knew about it. There are many firms which license Adobe Flash Lite libraries, so the deal's potential was known, but after signing a licensing agreement their marketing & release schedules are their business, not Adobe's. Adobe media code is in lots of hardware releases these days... not an unusual situation.

(Q) Hey! Isn't this FLASH ON LINUX!?!?
(A) Yes, it appears so. Macromedia has offered Linux Players for Flash for years. Much of this year's Linux controversy seems to be about moving from Strongbad to YouTube, which requires the On2 video codec available in Adobe Flash Player 8 or better. The Adobe Flash renderers for pocket devices, like Linux and other minority systems, don't include this video codec. The mainstream desktop computers still evolve new features faster than the entire set of Flash-compatible systems do, although folks are working here at Adobe towards minimizing these differences still further.

(Q) What risks do we run?
(A) The big one right now may be consumer expectations that "Flash is Flash" -- that you'd be able to see arbitrary desktop-style WWW content on any device with a genuine Adobe Flash Player. That's not the case... we've still got versioning to handle... Linux and devices don't yet have codecs covered, don't yet have the ActionScript 3 Virtual Machine (for Flex apps and general speed). The situation is much more cohesive than for Java or HTML/JS, but I'm sure there will be some "I just bought a Chumby and can't see YouTube!" complaints.

(Q) What's this talk about Chumby "porting" the Player to ARM/Linux?
(A) Adobe produces the Flash Lite libraries, and also some reference implementations for common environments (Windows, Symbian). But the general path is indeed for a manufacturer to license the Adobe code, implement it on their device, and then to pass Adobe quality tests on the result. New devices rarely come into the shop until they're actually released -- the manufacturers retain control over their as-yet-unannounced offerings.

(Q) What about the mixed of open hardware and proprietary code?
(A) Sounds interesting to me. I think there are solid reasons to include a kernel of predictability within such a customizable device. Some are intolerant of miscegnation, the "must be GPL or else" approach, but I like seeing new mixtures of technologies myself.

(Q) What were the terms of this deal?
(A) I have no idea. Business deals are usually baesd on a constellation of value, not just cash. That whole area's outside my sphere, though.

(Q) What excites you about this deal?
(A) heh, thanks for asking... even though I guess I just asked myself that question. ;-) I want to see remote-info widgets unbound from a single OS or single hosting service. I like personalized devices, where they look and act different ways for different owners -- Jennifer Larkin wears a Moose backpack to events -- quirkifying a personal carry-along just seems a nice thing to me. Being able to also customize the remote services and interfaces on the display... that just seems like a real good thing....