The company has both joined the Linux Foundation and released a Linux-focused alpha version of its rich internet application software

Adobe has released an alpha version of AIR on Linux and announced that it is joining the Linux Foundation.

AIR is Adobe's software for running and creating web applications that run both online and offline. AIR 1.0, released late last month, runs on Windows and Mac OS. Adobe said it will port AIR to Linux and then mobile devices.

As part of the AIR-on-Linux release, Adobe is making an update to the alpha version of its Flex Builder framework for Linux. Both will be made available at Adobe Labs for free and will be completed later this year.

Adobe said that it joined the Linux Foundation to help promote rich internet application development on Linux. The company appears to be increasing its commitment to Linux-based software on the desktop, an area in which its support, until now, has been limited.

Google is sponsoring programmers at CodeWeavers who are using Wine to write a Linux version of Photoshop and other Creative Suite applications.

Recently Adobe has sought to increase its involvement with open-source software in general. It has open-sourced development tools, including its Flex development framework, and contributed a scripting engine to the Mozilla Foundation for inclusion in the Firefox web browser.

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