Multidmedia wrote an article in April of this year titled “Zinc Vs Apollo: The Good, The Bad and The Desktop”:https://www.multidmedia.com/support/developers/articles/?action=show&id=33. It is written with a bit of a defensive tone, understandably. Their whole business is Zinc. I mean, they have other products but Zinc is definitely the big one and Adobe AIR is SERIOUSLY going to cut into profits for them. It is free compared to several hundred for Zinc. Anyways…I wanted to clarify a few things from their article.
They did write this in April of this year so the info was current as of them but it isn’t now. For instance, the table at the bottom compares Zinc and AIR. This is the biggest “gripe” I have with the article.
(see the article first then the rest of this post will make sense)
The first row “100% Standalone (No Plug-Ins/Runtimes required)” is correct.
The second row “Does not Require Installation to Run” is basically the same as the first so they should just delete it. It seemed like they were trying to compound red X’s for AIR. 😀
The third row “Can run from CD-Rom/DVD/USB” ummm…well…is the same as the first two. lol. You can’t run AIR without installing it so obviously it can’t be run from CD-Rom/DVD/USB. Again, strike this one from the list.
The next three are correct.
The seventh row has been debunked by later updates from Adobe regarding AIR plus an integrated SQLite so add a green check under the “Apollo” column.
As with the seventh row, row eight is changed by recent “upgrades to the Flash Player”:https://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/pressroom/pressreleases/200708/082107FlashPlayer.html (“more info here”:https://www.kaourantin.net/2007/08/what-just-happened-to-video-on-web_20.html) add a green check to the “Apollo” column. It can stay a red x if they remove MPEG and MOV. AVI still isn’t available to the Flash Player.
Now, I have a gripe with row nine. They claim you have DRM solutions with Zinc which is “true” but you have to implement a licensing server (build and integrate with it yourself) or supply a text file with license numbers. Now, even though you supply them you still have to write code to keep your app from running if no license is provided. Now, granted they have an API/methods you can call but implementing a DRM solution isn’t a cake-walk at all. Still…AIR doesn’t have one. Keep the red x.
The last row is true too (and one of my biggest desires for AIR).
Anyways…the article is old but Multidmedia keeps publishing it in their month newsletters like it is current. I figured someone had to say something to clear the record. 🙂 I’ll probably send this link to Multidmedia as well.
