A huge pat on the back for the Flex team.
I must say that I am very impressed with what the Flex team has done with the product and I am very very impressed with the way they ran the Beta program. The release dates were all on time and the "first half of 2006" was right on the money -- absolutely amazing for the software industry.I find it incredibly hard to believe that the release dates didn't slip and I must say that Adobe should be very happy indeed to have these excellent Macromedia people on board. Adobe should spend some serious time learning from them and ensuring that they occupy senior positions of power -- they get things done. You want these people to stay around.
I also think everyone should sit back and have a think at just what they have achieved with Flex 2 -- from the pricing model, to data services, to free compilers and ColdFusion connectivity -- all while creating a complete paradigm shift in they way we will create web-based applications. This is here today -- implemented, boxed, shipped, and ready for a production environment near you -- and not just theory baking in offices with views in Redmond. We all owe them a beer or two as well as the big pat on the back...they have done the best job possible.