---
title: Laszlo opens for business
categories:
- work
content-tags:
- web
---

I am giddy about this [news][1]: [Laszlo is now Open Source][2].  I haven't used Laszlo, but the demos and documentation smell a lot like [Flex][3].  I've been excited about [Flash as an application view layer][4] for a while, but have seen serious resistance to adoption for business reasons ("Macromedia?  Like, the Dreamweaver and ColdFusion people?").

   [1]: http://www.theserverside.com/news/thread.tss?thread_id=29237
   [2]: http://www.openlaszlo.com/
   [3]: http://www.macromedia.com/flex/
   [4]: /2003/12/04/moving-the-v-in-mvc-closer-to-the-user.html

Hopefully, adoption will grow exponentially, and the new developer interest will lead to extensions.  New UI widgets would be fun, but I really want to see [disconnected clients][5].  We're still a long way from critical mass acceptance of RIA, but between this and Gmail, it's becoming inevitable.

   [5]: /2003/11/26/client-servers-communicating-with-server-servers-through-clients.html

Props to [David Temkin][6] and the Laszlo team for such a brave move, here's wishing them well on the new business model.

   [6]: http://www.davidtemkin.com/
