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Appcelerator Titanium: Like AIR, But Better
A while ago Adobe released Adobe AIR. AIR was a way of running web applications on your desktop, even when you don’t have an internet connection. The great thing about AIR was that it was cross-platform, so, in theory, you could run any AIR application on Windows, OS X, or Linux. The problem was, that never really worked. Only a few applications really ran right on Linux. In fact, the Linux client never even came out of beta. Worse, AIR was not open-source. Normally, I would not be that bothered by an application being closed-source, but for a technology that could conceivably be running all of our applications, open-source would be far preferable.
Finally, it looks like the right thing has come along: Appcelerator Titanium. Appcelerator Titanium claims to be “the first open platform for building rich desktop applications.” Basically it lets you write desktop applications in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, just as if you were writing a web application. Like Adobe AIR, though, you don’t need an internet connection to run Titanium applications.
Appcelerator Titanium is a promising replacement for Adobe AIR that, in the long term, would be a far superior option, since it would not take us down a route of closed systems controlling our applications, our data, and our computers, but instead allow for an open way to develop great web applications that run on any desktop, no matter the OS.
Appcelerator Titanium can be downloaded now for OS X or Windows. The Linux version will be coming soon.
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And also, I wouldn’t call AIR a “closed” system. You get the full source of the framework, you can debug through it in Flex Builder, and I think you can get the source for Flash Player as well….that’s open enough for me…..
AIR still sounds like a more powerful platform than Appcelerator, simply because of ActionScript which is a fully-featured OO language with a complete development environment to go with it. We simply wouldn’t be able to do most of the things we do in Flex with a mix of HTML and JavaScript. For that reason I’m really struggling to see a selling point for Appcelerator, apart from somebody wanting to port an existing web app to the desktop very quickly. I can’t believe anyone starting on a new app would choose such dated technologies as HTML and JavaScript over Flex.
For the record, I will not be taking anything from Appcelerator, although I do appreciate the offer.
Hey, if any of you guys have any feedback or comments about Appcelerator, feel free to post and discuss on http://www.appcelefeedback.blog.com
Hey, my name is Trevor, I am with Appcelerator and i read the article. I along with Appcelerator would like to thank you for taking the time to write about our open source platform. As a thank you, we would like to send you some cool Appcelerator swag, including a shirt and a wrist bad. It would be great if you could send me your mailing address and i will have the swag sent to you. Thank you and keep on talking about Appcelerator and Titanium! Have a great holiday season as well.
Trevor
Florian – What does this have to do with security? The issue is if you want to allow Adobe to decide how well Linux is supported, what features will be offered, if the standards for writing applications will continue to be freely available, and so on.
Hi, I’ve downloaded Appcelerator Titanium. I tried out the demo applications and faced several issues especially with the Contact Manager. At first I thought that there was a compatibility bug with my Windows XP system. Then I tried it on another machine without luck. The result is that I have no confidence in it. I believe that Appcelerator Titanium is too immature to develop productive applications for this platform. My first experiences with Adobe AIR are much better.
“Like Adobe AIR, though, you don’t need an internet connection to run Titanium applications” – AIR is a RIA Plattform. Internet is included but – u don’t have to be connected as well… just for updated and for several tasks Titanium will need a connection as well.
“[...]would be a far superior option, since it would not take us down a route of closed systems[...]” The security system in air and the sandboxes are there for a reason. Where’s the sense in hoping for security when plattforms like Titanium open the doors to the system?
Sorry… i don’t see any point in what should make A.T. a better option.
Xavier Colomer – I don’t have anything against closed source applications, but I would prefer that platforms be completely open. The problem with a closed platform is that give up control over a large amount of the software you are running, not just a single application. If Adobe decides to drop support for Linux, what are you going to do?
@Jeff: Let me see why… I pre-ordered several programs for Linux now and they were always inexcusably delayed. That’s why.
C’mon…
Why you hate AIR, I now it’s not perfect, but it’s very promising and has a very large community behind.
Give it an opportunity, Appcelerator may be a good choice too, but from my point of view, AIR is and will be a standard.
Happy Xmas
Why skeptical? you can build an run the early version right now from github. the linux version will be released with PR2 in January. it’s open source, we’re pretty transparent (unlike others).
Actually, most applications work. AIR even abides by freedesktop standards to make desktop menu entries, and generate the appropriate packages for the platform it’s on (.debs, .rpms).
Accelerator has a tux logo and no linux version. lol
“no matter the OS.”
followed immediately by
“now for OS X or Windows. The Linux version will be coming soon.”
Is it only me who is sceptical until we see an actual working linux-version?