Adobe blocks Linux from ColdFusion Builder

The new ColdFusion Builder IDE from Adobe isn't perfect, but it is the closest thing to a viable IDE ColdFusion developers have had to date. That is of course if you're a ColdFusion developer running Windows or OS X.

I ran the ColdFusion Builder betas as a plugin to my already installed Eclipse, thanks to the great effort by Mark Mandel to extract the appropriate files from the full versions for Windows or Mac. ColdFusion Builder was a nice escape from the slow, buggy and outdated CFEclipse plugin, and with each new beta release Mark had a script to install it on Linux. He was notified however that his methods would no longer work with the final release, and when it came out, sure enough it no longer works.

The code that doesn't work supposedly is the licensing code, however it runs as an Eclipse plugin, written in Java and all other parts of the plugin run great on Linux. Marks scripts did not circumvent any licensing code, and all the beta releases had registration and expiry dates. So this appears to be an intentional move on Adobes part, or if not, a bug that could easily have be resolved for some more market share. They release the ColdFusion Server for Linux, so why not the development tools?

I completely understand the economics and why they may not consider a full native Linux client with support. But I for one would be just as happy to purchase a Windows or Mac version which I could run unsupported on Linux. Although the problem with that is that your Linux version doesn't get counted then, so they never know just how much demand there actually is. We would have bought copies for our entire development team. Seeing as how Adobe has treated Apple second rate with their creative studio products in the past, I really don't have any hope to one day see a working Linux version unless someone cracks the licensing which would then be another product forcing Linux customers willing to pay to be pirates because another corporation won't accept their money.

With the recent backlash at Apple many ColdFusion developers who currently use macs have decided to switch back to Windows (it all just threats at this point however). Why do they not consider Linux to be a viable platform? No ColdFusion Builder support. So now is everyones chance to help shape the future of computing and ColdFusion development, go and vote up support for ColdFusion Builder on Linux. I don't care if you currently use Linux or not, but it is the right thing to do if you believe in choice in computing and the future of technology. Also while your at it vote up support for Flash Builder on Linux. They are largely the same product, Flash builder is bundled with ColdFusion Builder, so they can't do one without the other.