Coming To a Desktop Near You
Looking back at Macromedia Central, I once had an optimistic view about the possibilities of a framework that could run flash content on the desktop (sort of anyway). Unfortunately, with the differences in code needed for central specific components, the lack of a dedicated editor, and the lack of the ability to custom brand the shell those optimistic views quickly died. Today, I again have a reason to get excited about desktop applications and that reason is the Apollo runtime.
Apollo will pick up where Central left off and will finally bring our flash, flex, html, ajax, and pdf content to the desktop. With a commitment to support Windows, Mac, and eventually Linux we will be a able to code once, deploy to the OS of your choice.
The keys to Apollo success will be an ease of connection between the application and the file system, the ability to work with or without an internet connection, and the ability to create compelling rich internet applications for the desktop. Apollo has addressed all of these. You will be able to work seamlessly with the OS’s file system and even drag and drop between the application and the OS, Connecting to the outside world can be achieved whenever there is a connection available via web services or flex data services. And, as far as crating a compelling application, I think we all know what can and has already been achieved with the Flex and Flash tools. When is the last time you saw a truly beautiful Java application. 
Just imagine a desktop application that takes advantage of the alpha properties and creates a 3d type feel with many layers of transparencies. I can only imagine the things the flash and flex communities will come up with.
Apollo seems to be the holy grail for ria or old school web developers who wish to move to desktop application development but don’t wish to get involved with OS specific coding and for that matter complex desktop languages in general.
More to come……
