Adobe AIR is a cross-operating system runtime that lets developers combine HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Flex technologies to deploy rich Internet applications (RIAs) on the desktop. The most recent version is Adobe Air 2 with more features than ever for the users as well as developers.

AIR 2 builds on the success of AIR 1 by giving developers new capabilities, and even tighter integration with the desktop. Some new features of AIR 2 include:

• Support for the detection of mass storage devices.
• Advanced networking capabilities like secure sockets, UDP support, and the ability to listen on sockets.
• Support for native code integration.
• The ability to open a file with its default application.
• Multi-touch and gesture support.
• New APIs for access to raw microphone data.
• Webkit update with HTML5/CSS3 support.
• Global error handling.
• Improved cross-platform printing
• Improved security and support for enterprise and government standards.

The beta release of Adobe Air 2 is available for download from Adobe site. But the problem is they don’t provide us with a 64-bit Linux version(for Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit). But there are some workarounds to this problem. You can install 32-bit version in 64-bit Ubuntu by installing some 32-bit libraries.

First, install ‘getlibs‘ tool from http://frozenfox.freehostia.com/cappy/getlibs-all.deb. Then install ‘libhal-storage.so.1′ library using following command.

After the above step please download the Adobe Air 2 beta version’s Linux *.bin file from Adobe, and install it by making it a executable and run the bin file in command line.

If every things went well, now you have Adobe Air 2 beta installed on your system. Please restart your browsers and try to navigate to some Adobe Air application sites and install your favorite Air applications from them.

Please note that I have ‘ia32-libs‘ installed in my Ubuntu 9.10 previously. If you have any problem running Adobe Air using above two steps, try to install the ‘ia32-libs’ using Ubuntu package manager. Also refer this knowledge base article from Adobe on installing Adobe Air 1.5 in 64-bit Linux including Ubuntu.

For more information Adobe Air 2:

• Introducing Adobe AIR 2 beta
• What’s Coming in Adobe AIR 2