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Adobe Systems has announced a prerelease alpha of its Adobe AIR software for the Linux operating system. Version 1.0 of AIR for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X was launched last year.

The move provides additional tools for Linux developers to build rich Internet applications, and RIAs created for Mac and Windows users can now be extended to Linux users without additional platform-specific code.

Joining the Linux Foundation

Adobe also announced that it is joining the Linux Foundation to boost the growth of Linux-based RIA technologies, and that it is making an update to the alpha version of Flex Builder 3 for Linux available. Recently, Adobe released as open source the software development kit for the Flex framework and for BlazeDS, which supports data-intensive RIAs. The company also said it continues to contribute to the open-source Tamarin virtual machine, the core of its Flash player.

David Wadhwani, general manager of Adobe's platform business unit, said these releases "provide a first-class application runtime and RIA-creation tool to the Linux community."

Flex is a free, open-source framework for building RIAs that can run on the desktop with AIR or in a browser with Adobe's Flash Player. On the desktop, RIAs can have access to offline data that has been constantly updated via the computer's network connection. In the browser, they can operate with the responsiveness more common to desktop applications.

Adobe Versus Microsoft

Al Hilwa, program director at industry research firm IDC, said these moves help Adobe secure additional credibility in the open-source community. "Open-source developers look at all large vendors with a suspicious eye," he noted, "but Adobe's done much more with the open-source community than, say, Microsoft -- relative to its size."

Hilwa pointed out that Adobe "is trying hard to cozy up to that community," in large part because of its ongoing battle against Microsoft's... Tags: adobe, development, linux, mac, microsoft, research, software, tools

NewsFactor - Last week saw the MacBook Air hacked through a Safari browser at the CanSecWest security conference. But before the week ended, Microsoft's Vista Ultimate also fell victim to hackers in the Pwn to Own challenge. Tags: adobe, mac, microsoft

Last week saw the MacBook Air hacked through a Safari browser at the CanSecWest security conference. But before the week ended, Microsoft's Vista Ultimate also fell victim to hackers in the Pwn to Own challenge.

CanSecWest organizers offered a Fujitsu U810 laptop running Vista Ultimate SP1 to any security researcher who could find a way to breach security and gain access to the contents of system files using a previously undisclosed zero-day attack.

Shane Macaulay from Security Objectives won the laptop by exploiting an Adobe Flash zero-day vulnerability. The vulnerability was disclosed to Adobe, which is reportedly working on the issue. No other information is available about the Adobe flaw. Macaulay also won a $5,000 cash prize.

At the end of the last day of the three-day hacker challenge, which was sponsored by 3Com's TippingPoint, only the Sony VAIO laptop running Ubuntu (Linux) was left standing.

Shifting Rules

The first day of the contest, hackers were only allowed to hack into the computers over a network. No one was able to claim the prizes. On the second day, the rules changed. Contestants were allowed to use the machines to visit Web sites and open e-mail messages.

That rule change made it possible for Charlie Miller, a researcher at Independent Security Evaluators, to hack the MacBook Air using the Safari browser within two minutes.

But the Vista and Ubuntu laptops seemingly remained airtight. On the third day of the contest, the judges again broadened the rules, opening up the scope beyond just default installed applications on those laptops to any popular third-party application, such as Adobe's Acrobat Reader, the Firefox browser, and voice-over-IP program Skype.

Macaulay installed Adobe Flash on the laptops and proceeded to compromise the system. Macaulay had some help from Security Objectives colleague Derek Callaway and independent researcher Alexander Sotirov.

Means Justifies the End

Contests such as... Tags: adobe, linux, mac, microsoft, research

PC World - Adobe Systems released an early alpha version of its rich Internet application platform AIR for Linux on Monday, and announced that it has joined the Linux Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes and standardizes Linux. Tags: adobe, linux

PC World - Adobe is working on an update to its Flash Player software that will address a widespread vulnerability found on hundreds of thousands of Web sites. Read more

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AP - The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop on Thursday launched a basic version available for free online.

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NewsFactor - Multimedia powerhouse Adobe Systems released on Thursday a public beta of Photoshop Express, which provides online tools for photos. Express, a free hosted application, lets users store up to two gigabytes of online photos at no cost and share them in a variety of ways, including uploading and downloading from social-networking sites like Facebook. It is accessible from any recent browser with a Flash Player 9 plug-in. Read more

Tags: adobe, tools

AP - The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop on Thursday launched a basic version available for free online.

Tags: adobe, software

AP - The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop on Thursday launched a basic version available for free online.

Read more

Tags: adobe, software

Adobe?s new Photoshop Express site lets users group images into Web albums and then post them to popular social networking sites.

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