Flash Platform is actually open sourceSince Flash CS5 was announced last year, community has became passionate about pretty much everything Adobe has to say, recently in regard to dumped CS5 beta and the new Flash Player 10.1. Some sceptics even go as far as suggesting dumping the ActionScript codebase in favour of JavaScript over speed, an absurd idea.

Whilst all this criticism is backed to an extent, it very often comes from people who show very little support to the development of the tooling. Also, the criticism tends to evade the fact that Flash Platform really is at a crossroads in the sense that the next authoring environment as well as the 10.1 of the Flash Player have to meet the requirements of mobile platforms, their multitouch capabilities etc.

It seems that Flash community lacks the understanding of Open Source Software and the essential thinking behind it: in order to build a better tool, you'll have to get involved. Today it's the case with Flash Platform more than ever – there's Open Screen Project in effect and you can develop Rich Internet Applications using Free Software tools such as Eclipse, AXDT in conjunction with Flex SDK, or FlashDevelop. Call it awkward or inconvenient, but it's available, it's usable and great things have been built on OSS platforms. In fact world's leading casino software provider Playtech uses FlashDevelop for their ActionScript codebase.

If you consider the above, Flash Platform involves a whole lot more than a piece of Adobe software to bash about. Thus, each and every one of you can actually get involved by reporting bugs and submitting/voting for features. Adobe Bug System is the open environment, you can sign up for it and submit your concerns or suggestions.

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