Apollo, why so much excitement?

In these 2 days I read only Apollo related news, post and video tutorials! I dont think there is still someone who dont know about the public alpha of Apollo 🙂
I see much more excitement than for a new Flash player release.

I’m sure Apollo will be a great product, I’m just testing it right now (even if I sill have  no idea about what to create with it… but it’s another story), but to be honest I can see anything so revolutionary there.
Unfortunately I dont have so much experience with desktop flash suff (just a couple of little projects using mdm and some experiments with XUL)
What’s the difference and innovation compared with MDM Zinc, Screenweaver, Xul Runner, and all the other flash desktop integration kits?
I just hope I can find the time to use it much more in the future to give me an answer…

From Web to Desktop

Yesterday Screenweaver HX was announced as part of the haxe framework.
With SWHX, you create an application by using two layers :

  • the System layer : written in haXe and using the Neko API, you can access the local filesystem, databases, network sockets… You can also easily extend its capabilities by writing your own DLL.
  • the Flash layer : written in haXe or any other technology capable of producing SWF, you can use this layer to display the graphical interface, handle user interactions, play sound and video…

Unfortunately I’m trying to install haxe/swhx on my Windows Vista but I’m not lucky at the moment 🙁

The second project is directly from Adobe labs, called Apollo (flash, html, and pdf together), and currently it’s only a long description of what it can do and a list of F.A.Q., but Adobe says it will be pre-released on Adobe labs in the second half of 2006..

I’ve also found a diagram which display makeup of an Apollo application.

Apollo is the code name for a cross-operating system runtime being developed by Adobe that allows developers to leverage their existing web development skills (Flash, Flex, HTML, JavaScript, Ajax) to build and deploy Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) to the desktop.