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Whats up with the take on redistribution of SSBs?
Your answer in the FAQ on you main site seems fairly specious to me. Fluid is such an easy platform to use it seems perfectly logical to use for a web company to want to provide a specialized SSB for their product. Having a user go to your site and learn what fluid is and how to use it is too large of a barrier for some.
I can understand the want for recognition, you certainly deserve it, but it seems like there are better ways than preventing redistribution. Launch each SSB with a splash screen prominently displaying "Powered by Fluid!", embed a donation link in the menus for your own work. Even much more would entirely acceptable given the utility of the app.
Why can't I take Fluid and create an SSB packaged with all sorts goodies and user scripts that provides a kick ass browsing experience for, as an example, google reader and send that around to my friends?
I can understand the want for recognition, you certainly deserve it, but it seems like there are better ways than preventing redistribution. Launch each SSB with a splash screen prominently displaying "Powered by Fluid!", embed a donation link in the menus for your own work. Even much more would entirely acceptable given the utility of the app.
Why can't I take Fluid and create an SSB packaged with all sorts goodies and user scripts that provides a kick ass browsing experience for, as an example, google reader and send that around to my friends?
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Inappropriate?Scott you should check out Adobe Air. it's a development/distribution platform built on webkit (which is what i presume you're looking for) and Fluid is not. Sorry I dont have the resources to be everything to everybody.1 Comment
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I've been looking into Air for a similar problem and have found that it's a great solution for developers who are trying to build a SSB for an application that they control, but lousy for anyone who wants to build a client for a third-party service.
In every case I've found, SSBs built in Air (not full-blown, api-accessing, clients) end up loading the page in an iframe that's sandboxed from the rest of the system pretty thoroughly. There's no way to customize CSS or Javascript of a remote page at runtime.
I'm looking to distribute to a pretty technical audience, so I'm in no great hurry for mass deployment (sending people to userscripts will work fine), but I'll weigh in that it would be a nice thing to have. Fluid already excels as a development platform, even if it's not meant to be one. :) -
Inappropriate?But see, while the quick response is appreciated, that answer is dodgy. You and I both know that Air is not nearly as easy to use nor provides as nice of an experience as an SSB built with fluid. Plus you can't get away without out knowing some Flash/Flex/Actionscript. With Fluid I can rely solely on my javascripting skills to build a SSB that goes beyond the normal experience of browsing a site. It's too tasty not to fight for :)
The question I asked was 'Why?' rather than "Accepting the fact that I can't use this, what can I use to half-ass what Fluid already does so perfectly?". I'm trying not to sound like an asshole but can't find the words to properly say what I'm trying to say, so I'll hope you can forgive that; I'm not trying to be an ass. I fully appreciate your work, and realize you've got a right to decide how people use it and also to decide for yourself how you generate whatever value you are looking for.
The resource argument, like the AIR argument, feels thin. If you've not got enough resources, disclaim support or charge for it. There are many steps that you can take to ease your burden while maintaining the level of control you currently have, while exploding your potential audience. What would be more desirable to you, 100% of 5000 fluid user coming to your site, or 1% of 5,000,000? I would argue that the 1% of 5 million would be much better for you in the end.
You could even build a nice little side-business around consulting for building SSBs for companies with custom plugins. Think like a bank-specific browser that interfaces with a smart card reader to sign you in. That would be money.
Barring that course, you could build in a "receipt" system that could build an SSB from a simple text file. Log that filetype as one that gets opened and automatically built by fluid and then you have the best of both worlds. Let people distribute the receipts, then you have nearly an identical usage experience as Air.
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You've probably had this argument a hundred times before, it might make sense to put up a follow up FAQ to the redistribution question that provides some of the "Why".
Thanks,
Scott -
Inappropriate?Building free software (while holding down a full time day job) takes time dude... all the features that would be needed to make a great distribution/development platform will take *a lot* of time that I currently don't have. Stay tuned... in the future you may see something like this from Fluid (wink wink), but for now, I'd prefer not to half-ass it just yet.
I'm spending every free moment i have just trying to make fluid a great user tool... i simply can't move onto making it a development platform yet.
And I'll let you in on a little secret... If you redistribute your Fluid SSB, I really wont care. I'd prefer you refer folks to the site for now, but again... if you just redistribute, I'm not going to do anything (what would i do anyhow?)1 Comment Add a comment
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And Scott, keep in mind that Todd used to work at Apple. They have historically had a higher standard of execution prior to release, so don't expect Todd to settle for anything less before he considers moving in the direction you've described. ;)
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