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Also, if you have a FB 3 license, you'll be able to extend your beta trial. More on that to come here: http://www.adobe.com/go/flashbuilderextension

It appears that as we approach Q2 2010, there is still no release of Flash Builder 4, much less a 4.1 release. 

Is there any news on the Flash Builder ETA, for real this time?

I'm happy for you. However I share the OP's concerns on developing with a product and having the trial run out before it's purchasable. It's especially disconcerting that the previously "guessed" release date has long passed.

Just looking for some answers.

I read the post. I'm not going to buy a FB3 license only to have to purchase an upgrade for FB4 whenever it is released.

Looking forward to an Adobe employee providing an answer to the original question.

Thanks.

It would be really helpful to have some idea whats going on here.

I made the mistake apparently of switching development to beta 2

Figuring I would fix what was needed when the release came out

Is there a pseudo stable release i.e a nightlly build that was mostly good I can access?

A real evaluation of where the process is would be most helpful

Dan Pride

We're getting pretty close folks, hang tight a little longer

Yes, there is a grace period.  Unfortunately there are accounting reasons that prevent me from saying whether we're in the grace period, but I think you should feel comfortable purchasing now.

Thanks for the updates, Matt.

@Adnan: I hardly think a TextInput bug is going to affect the release of a development IDE.

It's mid-march...... Time is money right? Lets see that release date Adobe! This post is over nine moths old for goodness sake.

I have been observing the "Active Bugs for FB" pre-defined Search in Jira for a few weeks, and it has been sitting at around 220 most of the time. How can a release be very very soon then?

PS A search on status "Closed" and resolution "Deferred" produces a staggering total of 3000+ bugs. Since some of those were reported by me, I would like to know what Adobe's road-map is for them.

Hi David

Thanks for your reply.

In my previous post I have not stated that clearing all deferred bugs is a requirement for the release. I understand that deferred bugs are considered as not critical and will be re-opened (hopefully) at a later point. Hence my question when Adobe will start re-opening the deferred bugs.

As for the 220 active bugs, I would have thought that they would either get resolved, or declared as deferred.

Unless the next release is a beta3, of course.

I don't know what query is resulting in 220 active bugs. We do have some open for consideration for a dot release, but there shouldn't be 220.

Personally I find the tone of your messages unhelpful and. I would have thought that as most of the people using this forum are developers that they would understand the development process, and leave the decisions on when something is ready for release to the people in the hot seat, and trust they know what's best.

I hope as a developer you don't talk to your clients in the same way you've posted here.

If you've something constructive to say, all well and good. But Im sure there are many who agree with me in asking you to watch the attitude. There's no need and it's not helpful.

Keep it friendly ay.

glenn

tinylion development & design

>> I hope as a developer you don't talk to your clients in the same way you've posted here.

Actually, I was only relaying their sentiments.

@tuxedo, In fairness to Glenn, I read his message as being in support of and not against what Matt wrote. That is, he was targeting it towards me and others.

Lol I was not talking to matt, but the other guy who did the actual question lol

Im on Matts side all the way.

Sorry for the confusion.

It was the original questioner I had issue with. Thought he was rude and his manner not expectable.

tinylion development & design

For some strange reason I don't see the filter but I can still do some digging.  I'd make sure to pull out Feature Requests which will clear some things up.  And then there also appear to be a large number of Waiting for Info which means that those are bugs we can't do anything about until we hear something, though we look at them and make sure none seem critical.  After that you get into the ones that are already under consideration for the next dot release, or minor stuff that we haven't cleaned up yet.  I saw ~160 Waiting for Info, so that's the bulk.

Matt

Glenn, with all due respect, I think you are missing the point.

I've been a developer for +10 years and I've NEVER worked in a project where the client wouldn't require me to specify a delivery date. To my knowledge, there is always a need for a customer to know when his product or service will be delivered, no matter the business. Whether you are going to a doctor, your car mechanic or a restaurant, you will expect them to tell you when they'll be done.

And in this case, we are the clients and then it shouldn't be surprising to anyone that we are asking this question to Adobe.

I think the directive to withhold this info is a strategic decision made at the highest level at Adobe. Adobe Systems is a noted stock at the NASDAQ stock exchange, and any info or action that could affect its value in a negative way will be avoided. So how would a disclosure of a release date affect a stock's value? The answer is that it probably wouldn't, but a delay of the release most likely would.

If all of Adobe products' release dates would be disclosed, and several of the products weren't delivered in time, financial analysts all over the world would be wondering why. And that is a scenario that Adobe doesn't want to see happen, as their stock would drop in value. Because everybody realizes the importance of being able to deliver something in time.

Personally, I think that is a bad strategy. Because we, as developers and designers, are currently Adobe's main clients. And getting us frustrated is in the long run a worse option than a momentary drop of the Adobe stock's value. Because our clients will also be frustrated, and we will start to look elsewhere for more reliable solutions.

Some executives at Adobe might also reason that it's important to not make promises you can't keep. But once again, I disagree. Because one thing that I as a developer do understand, is how hard it is to keep deadlines. Especially when you have a client who keeps coming back to you with "That's really nice, but could you also have it do this as well?"

And how do we as developers handle delays that are caused by our own miscalculations? We simply explain to our clients what the problem is. Because as soon as they know, they will be less worried. And that is exactly what Adobe, and most other software developers, should do instead of using their current strategy to disclose as little as possible. Not knowing, is always the greatest cause for worry and frustration.

I once was stranded in Dubai due to a flight delay. First, people were surprised because they just met a closed gate. After about one hour of increased frustration, rumours started spreading and people were getting close to hysterical. Finally, a representative of the airline came and explained the reasons for the delay and said that we would have to spend the whole night at the airport. And even though the delay was over twelve hours, the level of frustration decreased as soon as the announcement was made. Because people are not stupid. If you tell them you have a problem with your engine and you're working on fixing it, they will understand and appreciate your concern for their safety. So instead of speculating and worrying, some co-passengers and I could spend the night in one of the airport's bars and have a good time. And we all stopped talking about using another airline the next time.

If you think about it, Adobe have actually said that FB4 would be released in Q4 2009. Now they're saying it will be in the first half of 2010. So, in a way, they have given us an approximate release time. And that would contradict my whole reasoning, if it wasn't for one thing: They didn't tell us why. And in my opinon, that is the key factor for maintaining good customer relations: informing them when something goes wrong. Not doing so will sometimes be perceived as arrogance.

While I'm at it, why does Adobe make a public beta and then another non-public pre-release version for a selected group which I and many others can't be part of? I mean, who would even bother trying out Flash Builder beta 2 if they weren't professional developers? So why keep a new version for an "elite" group of beta testers? I don't understand the logic of that. Because it is definitely not a move that will decrease my frustration and my perceived level of arrogance from Adobe towards me as a customer.

I think the developers at Adobe are fully on our side, and they are just as frustrated as us by not being able to disclose more. But it's a decision that has been taken at the highest level in their company, so there's very little they can do about it

The current philosophy of more openness at Adobe through open source, public betas and their labs site is something I believe many developers and designers appreciate. I certainly do. Now they just need to take that a little step further and tell us what's causing the delay.

And while they're at it, they should make all the beta or pre-release versions public. Or make them non-public. Going half the way is an approach to things that I was hoping I wouldn't have to associate with anything else but my teen years.

Fredrik Borgström

Team-building for everyone

(yes, I also do SEO.. )

@ Frederik

Wholeheartedly agree.

Every reasonable person recognizes that development can NOT be a perfect straight line.

So, just respectful informing that there are certain wrinkles that need to be ironed out would make all the difference in perception of the delays.

FTQuest.

Your link just generates an error.

If you could repost it for me.

I have been working with beta 2.

Three with amf was a GREAT product, wish I had stayed there.

Dan

The link works for me.

Go here:

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/site/Home

Then click on the FX logo/image.  Which will bring you to this page:

http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Flex+SDK

On this page, there is an Overview section with a Flex 4 link.  Click on it, to bring you to a page that will have the following, "Download builds of Flex 4 from here". 

If you click on the here link, it will direct you to the link I orginally posted.  Then under Nightly Builds, download the Adobe Flex SDK (~166mb)

Hi look I wasn’t commenting on the QUESTION. Which is of course perfectly valid.  I get it

It was just I thought the tone wasn't helpful

As ive said elsewhere, if I read  your posts differently than you intended then lets just put it down to forums lack of inflection makes it sometimes easy to read the tone incorrectly.

Again, valid question.

tinylion development & design

@myIP

That's a very valid point. I download the nightly builds at least twice a week and things are running more and more trouble-free. That is the best advice really for anyone waiting for the release. Albeit, it won't fix the issue with the trial period expiring. But the Adobe folks at this forum were really helpful to me and got my licence extended. Which you can, if you've got a valid flex 3 serial.

@Glenn

Dude, one day we'll have a beer and laugh at this. I think I just hit my PMS cycle this morning as well..

/Fredrik

Teambuilding aktiviteter

I do not understand why beta licensing is an issue as if everything else is not enough.  Why could beta releases not simply "call home" to some Adobe web service which would indicate if the beta product has already been released?  Even then, why should such beta version not run for some 30 days after the commercial release, in order to give everyone some time to upgrade?  While these are not developer caused issues, Adobe suits are in effect hiding behind their developers by not themselves being on these front lines, where most of our frustrations would be directed towards them.

When all is said and done, these discussion are quite frank and are surprising quite civil when one considers that they are reflections from users who are facing the clients right in the trenches. There is absolutely no damage that can be caused by such discussions.  If one wants gory damaging examples then all one needs to do is to google for any combinations of words such as "adobe flex air silverlight html5 ria" and even "death".  Some of the most damaging writings are written by people who claim to be long time Adobe/Flas/Flex/AiR users/developers.

There also continue to be two distinct types of Adobe Flex/AiR use cases out there.  One is the more traditional business application developers and the other one is in all of the different artistic areas. While Adobe seems to want to cater to both, it is quite unfortunate that it's taken a BIG BANG approach by which neither get anything until both get everything.

I for one would have rather a stable Q4/2009 release of 1/2 to 2/3 of the features, with everything else showing up even a full year later.  While multi threading is important it is a perfect example of non visible functionality that could most likely get delayed with a simple "working on it" promise.

>> Adobe may very well lose a potential long term customer, one of the largest privately held companies in the US, because of their lack of communication.

Somebody higher up in project management needs to be fired, not "any time now" but right now !  Oh, but that would be too disruptive for the stock price, so the dead wood gets to inflict more damage.