The open sourcing of Laszlo may be opening a new chapter in the history of RIAs. When compared to Flex, we have now have a robust, free presentation server alternative. (Coincidentally, Macromedia announced a free version of Flex for non-commercial uses today.) We're definitely going to be exploring Laszlo in much greater detail than we have been so far here at Ariaware.

In the battle for the limited time developers and development houses have to learn any new technology, Laszlo appears to have attained the advantage with this move. How will Macromedia counter? The result, I can assume, can only benefit all involved, including the field of RIAs in general.

The Open Source Laszlo: A new age in RIAs? article by Aral Balkan, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 UK: England License.