Macromedia Zorn: The Answer I've Been Looking For?

Thanks to Mike Chambers for pointing me to this:

http://weblogs.macromedia.com/mesh/archives/2005/08/will_zorn_requi.cfm

Macromedia has an IDE based on Eclipse under the wraps that will bring you Flex goodness without the server side requirement. Definately something I will be keeping an eye on to see how it develops. Lots of potential for this, so we'll see if Macromedia does it right this time around. My main concern with Zorn is that it looks like it is just the next generation IDE for Flex. In other words, although you will be able to publish applications without the Flex server requirement, the post does mention:

"In addition, there will also be new enterprise-class features of the Flex framework that require the Flex server. You will be able to take advantage of Zorn to author those applications too, but you will need a Flex server to deploy them"

Once again this is showing that Macromedia isn't willing to put in the work to make Flash itself enterprise ready. For example, when making calls to webservices that use things such as WS-Security, the current strategy is to make a call back to your own server, then make the actual webservice call using your server as a proxy rather than doing it straight from Flash, which does not support WS-Security. This solution is backasswards if you ask me, and it really can't be all that hard to just bake this stuff into Flash. Maybe do what Quicktime does and allow certain features to be downloaded on demand when they are needed by content if they don't want to bloat the initial download size.

As long as I am going to require a Flex server running something like J2EE in the background to handle all my heavy-lifting, why not just develop the solution entirely in .NET or Java to begin with and save the hassle and the licensing fees? The current argument probably revolves around the "richness" of the apps that Flash can bring, but Avalon is going to bring that same richness to .NET in the very near future, and lets face it, how many enterprises are developing "rich" applications. Most corporate developers have a hard enough time not screwing up their applications with the few UI customization features they already have, I'd hate to see what happens when they add video and audio and sprites into the mix.

Of course, this isn't even to mention that in order to make this a success, MM will have to beat out IBM and Lazslo, who joined forces to provide the same type of thing:

http://www.cbronline.com/article_news.asp?guid=CD6EF422-2516-45F2-BE00-40F4C9067482

Lazslo's solution being open source makes Flex a pretty tough sell, especially if IBM's developers are behind the IDE. Let's face it. IBM has a lot of experience in this field and the entire Rational staff. Macromedia has almost no experience and a pretty horrible track record.