[MojoRising022]

I remember, when asked whether or not Flash (I think it was Flash) would take advantage of OS S'x graphics engine, a Macromedia Representative said, "No, we want our technologies to be cross platform and standard(...and all that crap)". If someone know what I am talking about, please fill in the blanks.

I guess this only applies to Mac users. Take a look at this press release:
http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia...framework.html

Macromedia seems very proud of the fact that a "future generation" of Ultra Dev will support Microsoft's .NET framework. That's all fine and good if you use Windows for development, but past generation of Ultra Dev have only supported Windows Server-side technolgies, but not open-source standards like PHP. I have a feeling this won't change.

If they can cater their products to windows technoligies, why not Mac Specific stuff? I know they haven;t released any software for anyone in a long long time, but their last mac release (Freehand) was a joke compared to the windows version (speed and bug wise) and they have given no indication that the Mac platform is even a distant second in their eyes.

Think it's time to start spending my money and more importantly, my company's money, on Adobe products. While the products temselves may be inferior in ceratin areas, at least the company has made a firm commitment to the Mac platform and backed it up with action.

[mfessenden]

I think that supporting Microsoft's .NET framework is a smart move...there are a lot of Windows web servers out there. Rewriting Flash to include the Quartz graphic engine would be a very large undertaking, and would increase development time as they would not be able to use all of the Mac code for the Windows versions. Haven't we all waited long enough for Flash OSX to appear? Kind of like comparing apples to oranges, really.

There was a rumor going around that the next Ultradev would include PHP behaviors, but it's never been confirmed. You also have to remember that Ultradev is still young...it jumped from v1.0 to v4.0, but the update really was just the inclusion of the Dreamweaver 4.0 features.

Michael

[MojoRising022]

I totally agree that supporting .NET is a smart move. To my knowledge, though, the Apache server is the most widely used server platform on the planet (I may be wrong). That being said, it would make sense to include support for PHP and Perl...like you said though, nothing has been confirmed regarding PHP (Perl support is a pipe dream).

On the other hand, Ultra Dev does have robust support for Macromedia technologies like Cold Fusion and JRun. It makes sense for them to steer developers towards their own technology, but not at the expense of excluding developers who do not use them.

On the other hand, the new GoLive has support for PHP, as well as many Windows only technologies at about half the cost (and it includes with a work group server - site spring costs a ton).

[mfessenden]

I'd read somewhere the statistics on numbers of NT servers versus UNIX. In the beginning, everything was UNIX, Apache, Perl and CGI. Since Windows NT server came onto the scene and allowed virtually anyone to set up a functioning web server, the numbers have changed drastically. But you're right, PHP is becoming really big, and Macromedia would be foolish to ignore it.

I haven't used GoLive yet because my company is big into Ultradev, but I think that I might get a copy to check it out if the next Ultradev rev dissapoints. Actually, the rumors I hear are that in the next rev, Dreamweaver will be scrapped and that Ultradev will be the standalone product, with PHP behaviors built in...but I have no idea how reliable that is, so don't quote me!

Michael

[Amorph]

Originally posted by mfessenden:
<STRONG>I'd read somewhere the statistics on numbers of NT servers versus UNIX. In the beginning, everything was UNIX, Apache, Perl and CGI. Since Windows NT server came onto the scene and allowed virtually anyone to set up a functioning web server, the numbers have changed drastically. But you're right, PHP is becoming really big, and Macromedia would be foolish to ignore it.</STRONG>

Last I saw, Apache's share of the web server market was 60% and growing.

[Clive]

Semi-reliable stats here:

http://www.netcraft.co.uk/survey/

The Apache figure will include at least some MacOS boxes running various Apache ports.

What started out as a Flash/Macromedia question degenerated into an cordial argument on webservers. Short attention span!

There are some flash beta shots for windows at
http://www.brooks.ru/flash/sshots/

Think secret also has something about the new version of flash for OS X
http://www.thinksecret.com/features/flashmx.html

I don't know much more, but I hope flash for OS X is better than flash 5. I hated it, I had to swich back to flash 4, and 4 runs much better in classic mode than 5. I have seen flash MX beta "out there" but haven't had a chance to run it.