Yes, that is correct, Flex 3 (or pieces of) will be open source and licensed under the Mozilla Public Licence. Here is what is involved:

Tools to be Open Source

• MXML Compiler (mxmlc, compc)
• AS3 Compiler
• Flex Command Line Debugger
• View Source Utilities
• Web Tier Compiler Modules
• Automated Testing Framework

Libraries to be open Source

• Flex Core Components
• Flex Apollo Components
• Graphics Tags Libraries
• Themes (Halo)
• RPC Libraries (SOAP, HTTP, Remoting)
• FABRidge
• SDK automated test engine
• SDK Build Scripts and Automated Tests

Closed Source (In SDK)

• Saffron/FlashType Library
• Core Player API Definitions
• Core Apollo API Definitions

Closed Source (Out of SDK)

• Mercury QTP Plugin
• Charting Components
• Flex Builder
• Flex Profiler

Closed Source

• Debug Flash Player
• Release Flash PLayer
• Debug Apollo Runtime
• Release Apollo Runtime

What will happen?

Sometime in June: Infrastructure to support open source goes live

• Public bug database
• Public daily builds available (Moxie)

Second Half 2007

• Flex SDK 3 is released under current closed licence
• Open source Flex SDK goes live
• Phase 1 governance model implemented*

Sometime on 2008 (6 to 12 months after Phase 1)

• Phase 2 governance model implemented*

Phase 1: Welcome Active Contribution

• Public access to Flex SDK Source
  • Source moved to public repository
  • General public has read-only access to latest source
  • Source, builds, license, etc. hosted by Adobe
  • Alternate access to project through 3rd party host (SourceForge, etc)
• Anyone can contribute to the Flex SDK
  • Require copyright assignment
  • Submitted through public bug database as attachments to bugs/enhancement requests
  • Contributions must be accompanied by automated tests

Phase 2: Deeper Community Involvment

• Sub Projects will be considered
  • Proposed and owned by external deveopers
  • Must be cleanly seperate code
  • Hosted in the public repository
  • Distributed alongside Flex SDK
• External contributors will be considered for core Flex SDK project
  • Based on activity level, dedication and alignment with Flex SDK Philosophy

Here are two videos of interviews with members of the Flex Team about the open sourcing:
http://scobleizer.com/2007/04/25/adobe-opensources-flex/

This is exciting news and is sure to really speed up the development of the Flex platform.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 12:15 am and is filed under Announcements, Flex 3 (Moxie). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.