Support Flex/Flash Builder for Linux

Posted At : June 4, 2009 3:24 PM | Posted By : Jamie Krug
Related Categories: IDE, Linux, Flex

It was reported that Flex Builder for Linux is on hold.

Rather than go into a lengthy discourse here on why I feel Flex/Flash Builder should be available to Linux desktop developers, I'll direct those interested to this Adobe issue/bug report, which contains plenty of great comments and lots of votes in support.

If you agree, please be sure to vote for this issue.

I would also like to draw attention to a recent survey by the Eclipse Foundation.

So...

The number of developers using Eclipse on Linux workstations has grown from 20% in 2007 to 27% in 2009...
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Eclipse is likely the most popular open source IDE (certainly for Java/CFML developers)...
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Adobe has open-sourced the Flex SDK...
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Linux likely has the most vibrant open source software community of developers...
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Adobe has a Flex Builder Eclipse plug-in...
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Adobe provides no means for a developer using Eclipse on Linux to become a Flex developer???
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I will be happy to spend $249 on IntelliJ IDEA, which appears to provide great Flex support out of the box.

Comments (6) | 13876 Views
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WhosTheJBoss's Gravatar Hey Jamie, you might check this out as an alternative...

http://blog.danyul.id.au/?p=68
# Posted By WhosTheJBoss | 6/13/09 8:45 PM
Jamie Krug's Gravatar @WhosTheJBoss:

Thanks for sharing all those details to get Flex Builder Alpha running on Linux, however, it is an alpha build that hasn't been updated for nearly a year now. There appears to be 30+ open bug type issues (not including feature requests) specifically for FB for Linux, some dating back as far as 2007 (http://tinyurl.com/mxx24m). So I'm reluctant to depend upon it for my Flex development, not knowing if it will ever be updated, and it's not open sourced.

I've been very happy with the Flex plugin with IntelliJ IDEA so far. I'm also going to be doing some Groovy development, and many Groovy/Java folks rave about IDEA.

I've also just heard some good news about an IDEA plugin for CFML (http://blog.mxunit.org/2009/06/intellij-idea-plugi...), so that will be interesting to check out.

All that is to say that IntelliJ IDEA is looking like a good fit for me and my current workload right now, but it's still perplexing to me to see no Flex Builder support for Linux, nor any response to the many comments and questions to the best of my knowledge.
# Posted By Jamie Krug | 6/16/09 9:24 AM
WhosTheJBoss's Gravatar I saw one Adobe staffer comment in that they had been under representing their position toward Linux and that they were committed to the Linux community and had some announcements coming soon. As far as IDEA, I'll definitely give that a shot. I haven't had any problems with the Flex Builder Alpha on Linux. I have been able to update the SDK without issue and build my applications. I primarily use Windows for development (since there is no Flash Builder support in Linux now) so I haven't had to worry about it too much. I have a Linux partition on my development box and needed something for building and compiling Flex apps to test with, so far the Flex Builder Alpha has served that purpose well. I agree though, it needs to be open sourced and so I'll definitely get IDEA. I've been meaning to get back to you on your post in the ColdSpring forums about getting Spring and Hibernate / Groovy running. I've been working on a guide, so I'll get that up very soon. I have a full integration and it works wonderfully.
# Posted By WhosTheJBoss | 6/26/09 11:32 AM
Jamie Krug's Gravatar @WhosTheJBoss: Yes, I'm curious to hear what Adobe has to say once they finally come to some sort of decision on Flex/FlashBuilder Linux support. I look forward to learning more about your Spring/Hibernate/Groovy configuration. Thanks!
# Posted By Jamie Krug | 6/26/09 11:56 AM
feiy's Gravatar this is a project to port flashbuilder to linux:
http://code.google.com/p/fb4linux/

current released:Adobe Flash Builder™ 4 beta 2 For Linux Alpha 1
# Posted By feiy | 11/17/09 1:24 AM
Jamie Krug's Gravatar @feiy: Thanks. I'll try the port of FlashBuilder to Linux if I can find some time, but I'm not sure I'll want to bother now that I've been happily developing Flex with IntelliJ IDEA on Linux.
# Posted By Jamie Krug | 11/17/09 10:00 AM
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