Running Adobe Air for Linux on Ubuntu

If you know what an RIA is then you know what Adobe Air is. If you don't know what either of them are, then you really shouldn't need to read this post.

I need to find out what type of performance boost their is running a desktop Flex application as an Adobe Air application compared to running it using FireFox with Flash Player 9. So in order to do that I need to make sure I can get Adobe Air for Linux ( currently in Alpha ) working. I need to do this because my application needs to run off a linux desktop environment.

1. First download Adobe Air for Linux runtime environment from the following link. You don't need to install the SDK unless you plan on developing Air applications using a linux desktop. I've started using OSX myself so I'm only going to install the runtime environment.
   
   http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/air_linux.html
   
   
2. I moved my bin file to /usr/share/air and then changed the permissions.
   

   sudo mkdir /usr/share/air
   sudo mv adobeair_linux_al_******.bin
   chmod +x adobeair_linux_al_******.bin

   
   
   
3. Then from the desktop go to Places > Computer > usr > share > air and double click on the bin file.
   
   
4. Follow the prompts and you're done installing the runtime environment.
   
   
5. Now let's see if we can get a fancy Air Application running. Go to the Sample application section at Adobe Labs and download an application that interests you. I downloaded Signet which gives you the ability to take your del.icio.us bookmarks to the desktop (whatever that means).
   
   http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air/samples/
   
   
6. When you click on the download link you should be presented with the option to open the link with the Adobe Air Application Installer. Choose OK and follow the prompts. Make sure to select the option to install an icon on your desktop so that the app will be easy to find once installed.

There you go. Go and explore the world of Adobe Air applications. Good times.