Adobe Systems today announced the general availability of Adobe AIR 1.5 for Linux.

"Adobe AIR allows you to seamlessly run Flash and Javascript-based applications on the desktop," writes Wired's Scott Gilbertson. "Like regular desktop apps, AIR applications are downloaded and installed on your hard drive and can take advantage of desktop tools like drag and drop support and more. But, unlike traditional desktop applications, AIR apps are powered by web technologies, so they can handle rich media like video and audio much better."

"Using Adobe AIR, millions of Web developers can now be Linux developers, and with little effort and no additional costs, companies can now target emerging markets and a broad set of new devices where Linux is growing in popularity," says David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president of the Platform Business Unit at Adobe.

"The company is making available version 1.5 of AIR for users of the OpenSuse 10.3, Fedora Core and Ubuntu 7.10 or higher open-source Linux distributions," writes InfoWorld's Paul Krill. "AIR 1.5 also has worked on Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop, but the company has not tested it on this implementation of Linux."

More here from DesktopLinux.com ... more here from The Register ... more here from VNUnet ... more here from CNET ... more here from Lifehacker ... more here from Ars Technica ... more here from VentureBeat ... and the press release is here.