Eclipse 3.6 Helios is out for a while now. It fixes some nasty performance problems with PDT (PHP support).
Is there any news about Flash Builder 4 for Linux?
At least the old Flex Builder 3 alpha. Would be very appreciated if it could at least be made to work properly with Eclipse 3.6 and SDK 4. In our company we use Flex Builder 3 on Linux with Eclipse 3.5 and PDT (3 developers). It gets the job done, but far from perfect.

My MiniBuilder project is stagnating. I don’t have time to do this all alone and looks like though lots of people look interested, not so many actually do something. I really think I should have better forked ASDT (AXDT). With similar effort, I would have come much closer to a production-ready alternative for Linux. And leave AIR where it belongs, the small niche of easy-made-good-looking-bad-performance apps.

Now I’m slightly less frustrated….but I’m still in the “I’d pay” camp.

Thanks for commenting. All I can say is that I feel your frustration. :)

BTW: I just got FB for Linux kinda working on 3.5 but there are a number of things that don’t work right. I need to file more bugs.

-James

I actually am fine with the support in the Alpha version. I don’t need the GUI builder, and I don’t ever use it at work where I’m on Windows and have access to it. And, as with most Linux users I suspect, I really don’t need tech support.

But I’m very frustrated with the fact that Adobe has not taken the very simple step to update the current alpha release to work in Eclipse 3.4. The assertion problem is obviously a simple to fix (for those with access to the code). It was fixed in the Windows version in short order. But Linux users have been hung out to dry.

James, you’ve even commented on the 3.4 assertion-error bug report, and been totally ignored, and you are an Adobe employee! Imagine how left-out that makes the rest of us feel when even Adobe employees can’t get a response.

The latest versions of most plugins REQUIRE me to use Eclipse 3.4, because it is over a year old. And 3.5 is out now! But instead, I run 3.3 because I must to use Flex Builder. So, I’m giving up many new features/plugins I should be able to install but can’t.

Further, the Air workspace (specifically the xml app definition) has changed between the latest FB and the Linux latest version, so you can’t work on the same Air app with someone who is in Windows.

What you say about thought leaders is true. A couple years ago, I convinced management at my company to go with Flex over Ajax/DHTML technologies (where they were leaning). Now, my company is heavily entrenched with many Flex developers. This is a previously exclusive Java/HTML shop.

Many thought leaders do use Linux, and my ongoing frustration does not make my recommendation likely. I can assure you, if Flex 4 does not include a Flex Builder for Linux, I will certainly never recommend it again.

My $0.01 on this is that it’s not JUST about pure dollars and cents. For instance many of the thought leaders in the developer audience that Adobe is going after use Linux. And supporting all three major OSs is always a way to firmly say that a development platform is really cross-platform.

-James

Selling a Linux-native development environment capable of producing output for “Joe Regular” on Windows and Mac is a completely different ballgame (and a different market) than selling an IDE for a Linux-only end result.

This is not about Linux on the desktop for users, but for developers.

And much of the initial development cost has already been invested, I mean, the important bits of FB is already running on Linux fairly well in the alpha. Is it really that hard to keep the eclipse plugin cross-platform?