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Adobe has decided to end official support for the Linux version of Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) owing to the limited popularity of Linux as a desktop operating system and no signs that it will become more popular in the future and AIR 2.6 incidentally was the last release of the platform for desktop version of Linux. AIR allows programmers to create cross platform applications and a host of popular apps are built around the adobe runtime environment, including Tweetdeck, iPlayer and more. Analysts believe that it makes more sense for Adobe to focus on Google’s Android OS and iOS which are steadily increasing their market share and Linux has only gained about a percent of market share in that time, so it’s no surprise that a sliver of PC users are no longer a priority……….

Adobe has officially announced that it no longer intends to support AIR on Linux and the  existing release of AIR 2.6 will be the last from the company on that platform and also instead the open source Open Screen Project will be responsible for any future updates and developments. Adobe is supporting that effort with a Linux porting kit for AIR that ships with the source code and Adobe’s reason for ending official support has been explained as a lack of growth in the usage of Linux on the desktop. In a statement, the company’s Dave McAllister said the company was shedding support for AIR on Linux from the 2.7 update onwards. He pointed out that Linux had remained at about one percent market share in recent years where Android and iOS had both been growing rapidly, leaving little reason to support Linux on the desktop where mobile was moving much faster and also shifting towards some non-Flash code, such as on Apple’s platform. “We need to focus our resources on the rapidly expanding markets like Android. we need to focus our resources on efforts around emerging web technologies as they become open standards” McAllister said. “We are beginning to focus on delviering more open capabilities in technologies that will expand those markets, like jQuery… and CSS Regions.” AIR brings Flash outside of the browser, was seeing especially poor uptake at just 0.5 percent of the downloads versus Mac and Windows users. Adobe was indirectly supporting Linux by virtue of endorsing Android and iOS users can’t use AIR directly, but native apps can be created from Adobe’s toolkit.

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