Flex 2 SDK will be free

It doesn't give you the whole kit 'n kaboodle, but it's enough to make some seriously cool UI's for web apps. (Single rendering platform!)

Free Flex SDK

If you've been following my blog from the start you probably remember when I was working on a Java/OpenLaszlo application. OpenLaszlo has its good points, one of which was that it's free (opensource). I haven't personally programmed anything in Flex (I manage people at my day job who do), but the people I've spoken to that have written code in both Flex and OpenLaszlo say that Flex is the better of the two. The programming model seems nicer, and I know the Flex components are of a higher level of quality than OpenLaszlo's. (I know I sound a little harsh toward OpenLaszlo. Don't get me wrong. I actually like OpenLaszlo.)

With a version of Flex being free the Flash platform has a better shot against the XAML and the XHTML/JavaScript platforms. I think the thing Adobe has to concentrate on next is the runtime performance of the Flash player. The one on the Mac is supposed to be super fast due to the fact that it taps your computer's video card. I hope the Windows one catches up!