Desktop RIA comparison: Dekoh Versus Adobe Apollo
Posted on February 26, 2007 by Vijay
Filed Under Product Insights, Product Comparison.
Dekoh consists of 3 components:
- Dekoh Desktop: Desktop RIA platform.
- Dekoh Applications: Dekoh ships applications that run on Dekoh Desktop.
- Dekoh Network: Enables secure sharing of Dekoh Desktop applications and content on the web. Viewers don’t need to install Dekoh software.
Adobe Apollo and Dekoh Desktop are both RIA platforms on the desktop. Apollo does not have an equivalent of Dekoh Applications and Dekoh Network. Hence, I compare Dekoh Desktop with Apollo in this article.
Installation and OS support
Dekoh and Apollo both are cross operating-system runtime that help developing and running RIA on desktop.
| Feature | Dekoh Desktop | Apollo |
|---|---|---|
| Cross-OS achieved through | Java web server | Flash/Flex |
| Installation size | 5MB | 5-9MB |
| Single click installation from the web | Yes | Don’t know |
| Automatic updates | Yes. Versioning API available to all applications | Yes. Don’t know if API is available for applications |
| Startup | Desktop icon, System tray, Windows startup | Desktop icon, System tray, Windows startup |
| OS supported in version 1.0 release | Windows, Mac, Linux | Windows, Mac |
| Browsers supported | IE (6 & 7), Firefox, Safari | None. Home grown rendering engine based on Webkit |
User Interface
Applications can leverage these technologies for rendering UI.
| Feature | Dekoh Desktop | Apollo |
|---|---|---|
| Build using (any combination) | HTML, DHTML, Javascript, Flash, AJAX, Java Applets | HTML, DHTML, Javascript, Flash, AJAX |
| Reusable Widgets | Yes | No |
| Drag-and-Drop support | Yes. Inside the browser. | Yes |
| Special effects | Some effects made available through JS/AJAX libraries | Window transparency, rotation and many more |
| Browser-plugins | All browser plugins work | None. |
| Browser toolbars | Yes | No |
Programming API
Applications can use these technologies for writing application logic.
| Feature | Dekoh Desktop | Apollo |
|---|---|---|
| Programming language | JSP, Servlet, Java | Flex |
| Bundled database | Yes | No |
| Other database support | Thru JDBC. Object persistence support thru JPA | None |
| Web services access | Yes | Yes |
| Inter application communication | Java or HTTP | Inter-Application Communication (IAC) protocol |
| OS services, like filesystem access | Thru Standard Java packages and API | Exposed thru Apollo API |
| Invoking other native DLLs, libraries | JNI, Java-COM bridge | None |
| Secure sandbox | Warn users before installing unsigned applications | Don’t know. (Not decided yet as per a product manager) |
General
| Feature | Dekoh Desktop | Apollo |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free (as in beer) | Free (as in beer) |
| License | Open Source | Proprietary |
| RSS support | Yes | No |
| Web 2.0 features like sharing, tagging, commenting | Yes | No |
| Share from desktop, applications or content with personal friend network | Yes | No |
All data regarding Apollo has been gathered through Apollo Developer FAQ and publicly available presentations/videos.
Comments
16 Responses to “Desktop RIA comparison: Dekoh Versus Adobe Apollo”
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Comparing Dekoh with Apollo is like comparing JSP and flash, apple and orange. They both are buit for different purpose. Dekoh is a embedded java web container for desktop with support for new web2.0 concepts like widgets. Apollo is a new generation tool for building rich internet applications.
Can you explain a little this analisis? Since we
haven’t seen anything of Dekoh, some of the points above might feel a bit
ethereal.
http://webwebusability.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/dekoh-vs-adobe-apollo/
Webtech: Apollo is a cross-platform runtime for
developers to write Desktop RIA. Similarly Dekoh is also a cross-platform runtime on which applications can be deployed using technologies mentioned in the article. Dekoh is lot more than a webcontainer. See more details on www.dekoh.org.
Diego: Questions on your blog has been replied there.
http://webwebusability.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/dekoh-vs-adobe-apollo/
Good and relevant questions. Thanks.
The Key differentiating factor between Dekoh and
Apollo is that Dekoh could inherit the huge codebase that is already around. Developers can extend it right away repurposing that existing code.
Also, Apollo is the next gen product of Macromedia Central - which unfortunately did not gain momentum, mainly due to lack of support from developer community.
Hi,
Can you please tell us about your Licensing model for dekoh?. what kind of open source licensing model does dekoh planning to use?. If I were to provide services around “dekoh”, Would I be able to say “Dekoh services provider” without having to sign a licensing agreement?. I am assuming you guys own the trade mark on the product, what about the services?. would appreciate if you can shed some light on this..
thanks
Srinivas
Dekoh has many exciting potentials. One of which might be Web hosting services. I would love to see you at www.hostingcon.com this year.
Srinivas:
We are contemplating using either GPL V2 or LGPL for Dekoh. If you are a service provider, you don’t need to sign any agreement with us, other than the Terms Use Agreement you sign when you get Dekoh. There will be Dekoh Contributor License, which you need to sign for actually contributing to Dekoh development itself. That said, we will be bringing up ISV and service provider partner programs. Also, Dekoh marketing programs, where people of who love Dekoh will help us spread the word.
In your comparison, why don’t you mention how much more significant the barriers to entry are for building apps with Java/JSP versus HTML/Flex?
In my opinion, Apollo’s core value is making the construction of desktop apps possible for the masses. It’s a lot easier to learn Flex/HTML than it is to learn Java/JSP.
Wow! I dont think I have ever seen a more skewed, biased and uninformed comparison between technologies.
I was going to post corrections here, but to be honest, there were so many misrepresentations, and inaccuracies, I lost track.
Also, are you comparing runtime functionality or application functionality? It seems to differ depending on how it will benefit your product.
Here are a couple of corrections:
Programing Language: For Apollo you can use ActionScript 3 or JavaScript. Flex is really a component layer and not really a programming language per se.
Bundled Database : This is something that may be in Apollo 1.0.
Availability : Apollo alpha is out today.
RSS, Tagging, sharing, etc… all possible in Apollo applications.
Reusable Widgets. I am not sure if you mean a UI component library (if so, yes Apollo has that), or if you can deploy widgets on the runtime (again, yes, Apollo)
Browser Plugins : both Flash and PDF plugins will work in Apollo.
Browsers Supported : We use Webkit. Its not homegrown. Also, Apollo applications run on the desktop not the browser, so I am not really sure what you mean by browsers supported.
Cross Os Achieved though : the entire runtime is cross OS. It has nothing to do with Flash and especially not Flex.
Apollo also provides an update API for applications (partially implemented in the alpha).
Those are just the items I have time to list.
More info at: http://www.adobe.com/go/apollo
mike chambers
mesh@adobe.com
Mike,
I am sorry this comparison has hurt you. I answered your questions on http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dekoh_challenges_apollo.php
This comparison was not done to mis-represent anything. Maybe with my little more explanation on the thread above, you will get a better understanding.
Trust me, the little I have seen Apollo in demos. It is cool. I just feel Apollo and Dekoh are 2 different approaches to solving web-desktop integration problem.
Vijay
Dekoh
Dekoh -
don’t be so scared of Apollo… Its all passing u by, just let it go.
- 82ndelement
Hi,
> Installation size 5MB 5-9MB
Dekoh is installed once and you cen deploy apps? Or is it per application size?
Adobe Apollo is runtime and your apps would smaller (depending app size).
@Mike: I agree with you. This comparison is not accurate, in-fact wrong at many places.
How can a released product be compared with a product in alpha phase?
I just posted my comment here (one of your team-mates blog):
http://jroller.com/page/rameshl?entry=will_apollo_go_the_yahoo#comment3
Let’s wait for Adobe Apollo 1.0 and that would be the right time to compare?
Thanks
-abdul
Apollo Programming language: Flex
Flex? Rather AS3, JS, MXML
OS supported: Windows, Mac
Next releases probably will support Linux (and maybe Symbian: Tamarin source code has some Symbian targeted code)
Bundled database/Other database support: None
At this stage - alpha version, you don’t know that. But with some work (huge;)) you can write DB driver.
Browser-plugins: None
Apollo is not browser technlogy
I think also, that some general features (RSS support, web2.0 features) are tendentious. You can achieve that with basic knowlendge and/or additional libs (FABridge for eg.)
But every competition and fresh ideas are good for us - developers and users.
So good luck! ;)
The charted details need updating. Especially since Apollo Alpha was released post this comparison.
Apollo does support JavaScript, so many features that weren’t listed before are now available.
I think, you need to educate yourself about Flash/Flex/Apollo.. There is no harm learning about new things…
I know about your company since three-four years, some of your guys joined Macromedia (JRun/Coldfusion team) in 2004…They are amazing guys and I can imagine about rest of your team, you guys are indeed making difference in Java/J2EE community. Don’t you think, before making this kind of public comparison requires little more homework or patience, otherwise it just sounds like a marketing tactic…
Thanks, it’s always nice to see different perspectives and opinion.
-abdul
I think that the comparison was on one sided and look like marketing of Dekoh, otherwise you can compare Dekoh with ASP.Net because both are giving output in HTML format and presentation are more likly similer.
But if you are talking about Flash/Flex/Apollo its a next generation technology. Even Flex are running on browser base but its presentation and animation are more then normal desktop applications. Its quick response of UI is more beatiful.
There are some little problem of marketing of Flex which should be like Microsoft strategy and another problem of its direct connectivity of database instead of via HTTPService.