The challenge before the big development tools vendors is to build a Web applications platform that's as "open" as is feasible, up to the point where the vendor needs to monetize it to make its investment pay off. Today, it's Adobe's turn.

The race is "on," to borrow the watchword from Adobe's marketing campaign launched this morning, between Adobe and Microsoft to determine whether a graphical, boundary-crossing runtime platform is preferable for delivering applications over the Internet to a Web browser. Microsoft's entry in this field is Silverlight, which leverages the graphical library already in Windows. Adobe's entry is AIR, which has its own leverage -- the near ubiquity of Flash video on the Web.

Adobe's latest entry in this field went live this morning, with the "this-time-we-really-mean-it" launch of version 1.0 of the AIR distributable runtime platform, officially no longer in testing. This is the component which, once distributed to Windows or Mac OS systems (the Linux edition remains in beta, according to Adobe), will enable an online server to distribute rich functionality over the Web, without the intervention of a browser.

Beginning today, AIR 1.0 is available for free download from Adobe, for Windows and Mac.

One of the most striking examples of this concept in action is Buzzword, a fully functional word processor that became an Adobe project last October. The application is fully maintained on the server -- which means, the server admins handle all the updates, and you don't.

Where is the value in Adobe's value proposition? Adobe wants to build the tools to make AIR workable for Web developers. There are three ways to program AIR, one being through AJAX and another (in a limited respect) through Flash. The third -- which is Adobe's choice -- is Flex, a development "language" which, as its own engineers have demonstrated for well over a year now, may not need to be used as a language in order to be compiled. For many Web services whose functions are already addressable in standardized form, Flex developers can build an application entirely in the graphical portion of the Flex Builder IDE.

While the SDK for Flex is not only free but open source as well (Adobe prefers to distribute it using a Mozilla license), its suggestion that developers can use "the IDE of their choice" doesn't have a very exciting ring to it. Imagine trying to do your own version of last year's AIR-based eBay browser project using Microsoft Visual Studio, and you might agree Adobe's policy is about as free as a cheese-head hat giveaway outside of Texas Stadium.

That said, the price of the new Flex 3 Builder IDE standard edition has come down to $249, formerly $399 (upgrade price is $99). The Professional Edition may make up the difference, though, with a steep $699 price tag. A 60-day trial edition is available for download, though do note that it's the Professional Edition trial.

Version 3 of the IDE now enables the creation of multiple-window applications, supports reception of elements dragged-and-dropped from the desktop, and also supports a SQLlite database for local storage and retrieval of relational items -- most importantly, for instance, including shopping cart items and catalogues for remote retail applications.

Today's launch is being celebrated in Atlanta with a big 360 Flex developers' conference, held downtown today through Wednesday.