Red5, OpenLaszlo, ColdFusion, OpenVZ, Joomla

As a stiff ColdFusion developer since 1999 I've closely followed all developments in webworld from the angle 'Allaire, Macromedia and Adobe'.

During these years I've noticed that technology has become cheaper and many times even free.

Picture this. In the late nineties I used MS NT 4 server as a hosting box, MS SQL/Oracle as database engines and Allaire ColdFusion 4 as a webapplication server.
What do they have in common? They are all commercial products.

What does the software cost nowadays for a similar setup? 200 euros or less:
- NT 4 => Linux (e.g. Centos 4.x: it's free and 100% RedHat compatible);
- MS SQL / Oracle => MySQL 5 (views, triggers and stored procedures are supported nowadays!)
- Adobe ColdFusion => Railo (compatible with Adobe CF 6.1. Community edition is free, profession edition is 200 euros)

Total: 0 + 0 + 200 = 200 euros

But if you don't use search functions and CFX tags you can even save yourself the last 200 euros.

In my opinion today's opensource projects advance to the next level. Fundamental needs like developing an operating system or a database server are passed.
The new focus of opensource are business applications like OpenLaszlo (opensource Adobe Flex) and Red5 (free Adobe Flash Media Server).
Integrate that with popular webapplications like Joomla and Drupal and you can fulfill more business needs in less time.

In my future writings I'll walk you through real setups and configurations of these products.

Ruben