For all the folks out there who love to bash Adobe Systems for its Flash Player software, it's time to take a fresh look at the company.
Because today's Adobe is very different than the one that long promoted Flash as the way to a rich, interactive Web. Adobe is being reborn as a Web technology company that is advancing Web standards, not promoting its own in-house technology alternative at the expense of those standards.
It's not just Web standards making an appearance, either. Adobe also is moving beyond the personal-computer era with serious apps for tablets. It's a natural fit for the affluent, creative set that gravitates to Adobe's software, but it's a big change in development and sales for the company.
It's not clear to what extent Adobe's new initiatives will succeed in making the company relevant with modern computing trends. But it's time to give the company credit for adapting.
Actions speak louder than words
Adobe has been talking about its Web work for years now, but actions speak louder than words. Here are major recent moves--some announced this week at the Max conference--that show the company's new Web priorities:
• It's working on software called Edge to let people design dynamic, interactive Web sites. It's developing Edge in public with preview releases that give the company a way to discuss priorities with developers and respond to feedback. Edge is designed to be a tool for professionals.
• It's taking a leadership role in creating standards, notably with the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) standard for Web page formatting. Adobe has pushed ahead with CSS Regions and Exclusions for advanced, magazine-like text flow around and within objects, and added to that this week with CSS Shaders, for programmable, animated control over Web pages' 3D geometry and color effects. It's directly building browser code within the WebKit project to support the ideas.
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