Adobe Labs this week posted an alpha version of its Adobe Flex Builder Linux release, which is a plugin version of Flex Builder to build Flex applications on Linux.Flex Builder is an IDE for building rich Internet applications that leverage Flex and Adobe’s Flash Player. Flex Builder Linux Alpha offers most Flex Builder 3 features such as project creation, code coloring, code hints and Ajax bridge. The release requires Sun Java Runtime Environment 1.5.x and the Eclipse 3.3 platform. The alpha producte supports several Suse, Red Hat and Ubuntu Linux distributions and the Firefox browser. Plans call for expanding support to other browsers and Linux distributions, said Phil Costa, director of product management at Adobe. Previously, Adobe has enabled users to develop for Linux using the less functional Flex SDK. But the full IDE is a development tool featuring a visual layout canvas, debugging and tools to connect to Web services and databases. “What’s new here is that now you can do development much more efficiently on Linux because the IDE is the tool for the developers to use,” Costa said. A beta of the Flex Builder Linux is expected some time around the end of the year. No date has been set for the general release. Adobe this week also announced beta 2 of Flex Builder 3 for Macintosh and Windows and the Flex 3 SDK. Adobe is adding productivity tools such as a profiler and code intelligence in the IDE, with code refactoring and tools to work with Web services.Adobe Labs has posted release notes about the Linux alpha product here. Software Development