Adobe keeps missing the point..

Posted @ June 30, 2009 12:39 PM by Jax Related Categories: Coldfusion,Misc

For as long as Adobe's Air is around I have been (trying) to play with it.  It shows a lot of promise and could tackle a lot of browser specific problems we encounter here in the office and with our customers.

Unfortunately Air suffers from one, but very major design flaw. One needs to have administrative rights or you can't install an air application. That's just plain bad thinking Adobe!  I am quite convinced that this alone has still kept my company from embracing Air, simply because most developers can't be bothered to have an administrator come over each time they want to check out an Air app. so they can see what it's all about.

Truly a shame and a missed opportunity.


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  1. Jared's Gravatar Jared 6/30/09 4:49 PM
    How is AIR any different from any other software? If admin rights are setup on all your machines then you can't install any desktop software, whether or not it is AIR or another technology.
  2. jax's Gravatar jax 6/30/09 6:14 PM
    That's not entirely true. There is plenty of software I can install without me being an administrator. I just can't install it using defaults ('program files').

    Me being able to install -often a *lot* more 'dangerous'- software given the current rules here in the office, but NOT being able to run a simple air application says it all I guess..
  3. David's Gravatar David 6/30/09 6:53 PM
    Hi Jax - maybe you can elaborate more on your reply - what software can you install without being an administrator, and why is an AIR app different? We are considering using AIR more, and I'm interested in your experiences. I assume you are using Windows, is that correct?

    Thanks,

    David
  4. Jason Dean's Gravatar Jason Dean 6/30/09 10:16 PM
    I supposed Adobe should have found a way to override the security policies of the operating systems onto which AIR applications should be installed. That would really endear them to the OS makers and to corporations around the world who have real security policies.
  5. Tom Chiverton's Gravatar Tom Chiverton 7/1/09 7:29 PM
    WinAMP, for example, will install on newer Windows machines without needing an admistrator, iirc (and it was a while back. I only have one WIn32 machine because I've not learnt Hydrogen yet).
    However, if the admin. of your system (obv. not you, or this wouldn't be an issue) has decided users can't install stuff, then yeah, you can't install anything (even AIR !) so go talk to them. Hardly Adobe's fault.
    If you are looking to roll out AIR in your company, sign up for the redistributable AIR (free) service, and you'll get a whole bunch of other install options to having all your users run a .exe themselves.
  6. jax's Gravatar jax 7/7/09 5:58 PM
    @david: Basically I can install any software which:
    - Does allow me to choose a different install dir then '\program files'
    - Does not need to write (mostly useless stuff) in the registry
    - Does not, and I think this is the main thing, do a specific check for the current user having admin rights.

    There's loads of software that I can install (google chrome, firefox, Java SDK just to name a few) without me being an admin.

    I don't know where the Air applications fail when installing, I am allowed to choose a different install dir, I can't see why it would need to write settings for an Air app in the registry, so it must simply be the check.. Air doesn't give you a specific reason, it just tells you the install failed, and when I went to investigate, it turned out it was because I was no admin.
  7. David's Gravatar David 7/7/09 6:12 PM
    Jax - that's interesting, as a matter of interest, can you install MS Silverlight?

    The applications you are talking about installing are fairly pervasive tools and don't allow you to make the modifications you are talking about for a reason - so that they can be downloaded without admin rights.

    AIR apps are by their very nature custom applications - like Turbo Tax, MS office or weather bug. Are they all missing the point?

    You have a good overall point in your message - Admin lockdown means if you are developing AIR apps, you should know your target customer and whether they have this limitation imposed. I've personally seen projects fail because they were Silverlight based and clients had locked machines (banking industry). That was probably something that should have been checked BEFORE the technology choice was made (or at least work with the IT department to see that silverlight could have been installed)

    I'm just not sure I agree that Adobe "missed the point". I think they are working within the sandbox defined for them.

    Cheers,

    David
  8. Tom Chiverton's Gravatar Tom Chiverton 7/7/09 7:37 PM
    @jax: It's probably the writing into the list of installed programs so applications can depend on the the framework and moan if (just) the framework is (attempted) to be removed.
  9. jax's Gravatar jax 7/8/09 3:38 PM
    @david: "AIR apps are by their very nature custom applications - like Turbo Tax, MS office or weather bug. Are they all missing the point?"

    Any web application is a custom application. The big disadvantage here is the thin client the app is run on (compatibility). AIR's big thing ( as opposed to the other apps you mentioned) is overcoming this very problem. But.. you can't install an AIR app unless your an admin. In my perception this is a big deal breaker. So yes, they missed the point at Adobe.
    At the very least they should have made it configurable for the developer.
  10. Tom Chiverton's Gravatar Tom Chiverton 7/8/09 5:12 PM
    @jax - is it not better to keep it configurable to the administrator of the machine you are sat in front of ?
  11. jax's Gravatar jax 7/8/09 6:27 PM
    :-)

    haha, allright then.
  12. David's Gravatar David 7/8/09 7:17 PM
    Hi Jax, when you said "AIR's big thing ( as opposed to the other apps you mentioned) is overcoming this very problem. " I think that's where the confusion begins.

    That's not the purpose of AIR - Adobe HAS a thin client, it's the Flash player. The point of AIR is to create desktop applications, with access to file I/O, system resources, etc. It seems like you are hoping for something in between a pure desktop platform, and the flash player.

    Cheers,

    David
  13. jax's Gravatar jax 7/9/09 1:45 AM
    Oh really ?

    From the Adobe site:
    "The Adobe® AIR™ runtime lets developers use proven web technologies to build rich Internet applications that run outside the browser on multiple operating systems."

    :-)
  14. David's Gravatar David 7/9/09 6:53 PM
    Jax - what about that statement contradicts anything I said? When you get "outside the browser" what options are there, currently? I feel Adobe is playing in the sand box available to them - The windows operating system. It's not great, I agree, but I don't see how it's "missing the point". MS put in the administrator rights for a reason. Now, you and I might not like that, but admin's love it. That's the way it is - I think you should be lobbying MS to change Windows, not Adobe to change AIR. No?

    Cheers,

    David
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