AJAXWorld: How about Eclipse, will we see an Eclipse-based IDE at all?

Haynie: We’ve been actively working on our next product introduction, the Appcelerator RIA Developer, which is an Eclipse based IDE. The official launch of the Appcelerator RIA Developer will be in March, along with our revamped Appcelerator Developer Network. Developers can download the beta version of the Appcelerator RIA Developer now at http://updates.appcelerator.org.

 

We’re big fans of the Eclipse programming model and use it internally to build our own applications. Of course we also provide the Appcelerator Platform SDK for developers to use in Eclipse or the programming environment of their choice.

 

The Appcelerator RIA Developer is also in full compliance with our license agreement with Aptana – it’s actually “Powered by Aptana”, which we think is a great product as well.

Haynie: Marc and I go way back, to my early days as a contributor and core developer on JBoss. He’s become a good friend and is genuinely excited about the space and the opportunity to help us solve many of the enterprise RIA development challenges that exist today.

 

Marc has a keen eye for emerging technologies that can solve big problems, and is clearly an asset to our team at this stage in our development. As a founding father of commercial open source, he’ll also be an asset in helping us refine our business model to sustain Appcelerator for the long-haul.

Haynie: If anything, this move further validates the viability of open source as a business model. If any doubters remain around the impact open source will have on the future of software licensing, Sun’s acquisition certainly got their attention.

 

It was a smart move for Sun to reach out to MySQL. As the world’s largest widely-adopted open source database, this acquisition significantly enhances Sun’s competitive advantage in the marketplace.

Haynie: Your guess is as good as mine when it comes to what Microsoft will actually do in the end, but its recent love affair with Yahoo is a clear indication of their commitment to embracing open source. Yahoo has long embraced open source movements, and has been a significant contributor to some of the most successful communities to date. If Microsoft is successful with its pursuit of Yahoo, it will further enhance its ability to move towards an open source, open model in the future.

 

Microsoft clearly sees Google and others as a direct threat to their model. Open source will help them retain their competitive advantage, breathe new life into their developer communities – their lifeblood, and help them more widely distribute and drive adoption for their products.

Haynie: Adobe clearly has the right idea around Flex and Flash. We view their solutions in line competitively with ours in terms of enabling developers to create next-generation Web applications faster and easier. There’s no question that they have a head-start in the emerging RIA market – and think there are some significant application benefits delivered through the capabilities of their Flash player.

 

We can see how application requirements are being satisfied by the Flex-Flash combination, and some of our own components use Flash technology – such as the presentation of our charting widgets. We have more in common with Adobe than most would think – but vary greatly in our implementations in the market.

 

As we move forward, we’re interested in exploring ways to make our solution more appealing to Flex-Flash users, and vice versa.

 

Haynie: No. I think both models will be sustainable for the long-haul. I think you’ll see the greatest impact in areas where open source models can impact the mass of the market. For example, with Linux – not everyone can build an OS, but everyone can use an OS. That’s a great example of an area where open source can make a big dent – as we’ve seen with Linux and JBoss in that regard.

 

There are still a lot of cases where a proprietary model works great – and I’ve advised other companies against open source in some instances, where a proprietary solution would work better in terms of business model. Small, niche software solutions come to mind for this. There’s no need to open source an accounting software package – though I could make the argument either way.