So following on from my last post, Apollo has launched in Alpha and you can download the bits and pieces you need from here. Having a had a quick dig around I can highly recommend FineTune as a great example of a first of breed Apollo application. I installed it on my Mac Book and it worked with no hitches, very impressive.
Interestingly since the release of Apollo a number of other RIA frameworks have announced their existence. Dekoh is one but Ryan Stewart, who is a guy who knows his RIA stuff, had a mixed reaction to it.
The one that caught my attention was Joyent Slingshot, and the reason was...well the opening paragraph on the Joyent Blog should explain
Joyent Slingshot allows developers to deploy Rails applications that
work the same online and offline (with synchronization) and with drag
into and out of the application just like a standard desktop
application.
Yes...Rails goodness on the desktop with an online/offline synchronisation api. Wow. Now at the moment it is somewhat vaporware, but there is a screen cast and some good technical information which points to its soon existence.
I can't wait to kick the tires of both Apollo and Slingshot and see what we get. Exciting times I think, especially with Mix 07 just around the corner (I'll be there!)