Adobe Air

[wrightee]

Hello fellow developers .. I'm reading about Air now it's come to Linux - am I right in thinking it's basically just a way of packaging your html/js/flex/flash code into an installer / desktop app ? In other words, no tasty widgets to make life easier for display, just a "distributable browser app" ?

[xelapond]

Thats part of it,

Basically it allows you to package your Web 2.0 apps, and also give them access to parts of your system like File read/write and External Device access.

I have personally been watching Mozilla's Prism, which is a free alternative to AIR.

[wrightee]

I don't 'get' prism either - it seems completely pointless to me - just a "convenient" way of making a link to a website on your desktop / app menus with browser chrome removed at the moment as far as I can tell?

[Turtle.net]

I don't 'get' prism either - it seems completely pointless to me - just a "convenient" way of making a link to a website on your desktop / app menus with browser chrome removed at the moment as far as I can tell?

Yes thatś exactly the point.
I use Prism for Google Reader and Google Document, that's not better or faster or anything else.
It's just convenient