What do you consider an IDE ?
Eclipse with syntax highlighting ? (for flex there are dozens of javascript plugins that are opensource and can be used as actionscript editors - the same goes for xml, basically any xml editor plugin with some schema definitions)

There is aptana IDE that supports these above, free ...

Flex SDK (compiler, debugger, framework) is free and opensource, silverlight has none of these as opensource ...

So there can't be any problem for flex.

The main issue that might arise will be if silverlight gets a directx interface that will allow the developer/designer access to miriads of video/audio technologies for windows.

For flash player you have just a handful and no pluggable architecture (even if in latest as3 incarnation you could theoretically write an divx decoder or ogg player ... :P that would be an awful slow sollution)

An IDE is many things but we are talking about the description as per wikipedia.

not an issue. 300 bucks is not too much to pay for an IDE like flexbuilder and help support it. Its awesome value for money.

IDE is not just syntax highlighting. Even if it was a syntax highlighter only then still ppl would use easier and free tools that highlight syntax like Visual Studio Express or Netbeans.

This is my concern as well, whether to go with Silverlight as i am .net developer or stick with Flex. Flex is far more complete for now but as we all know MS will bring Silverlight to any computer as soon as possible and it will have enough crowd to progress.

Now for pricing of IDE, Flash costs around 500$ but it never stopped 99% of sites to use .swf files while most of those probably get warez versions.

gday

About two years ago there were a few projects around pushing opensource Flex IDEs.

http://www.osflash.org/mxmleditor
http://www.flexiblemxml.com/ (needs buider to work)

Now they are floundering just like the ASP.NET Matrix did before Microsoft finally put in its hand and made move to fix things and make it right. These projects will not make it to Flex 3 level muchless Flex 4 without the kind intervention of Adobe. Although under the Eclipse license Adobe has to provide the source code used, we all know how this goes. Eclipse programming is a time consuming monolithic endeavour. It would take 15 to 50 good eclipse programmers to make any sense of the code and to get out a stable version. Which is why companies like TrueStudio, Zend and Adobe along with other commercially ventures are no afraid of using the Eclipse platform for their products.

The actual cost is $700 USD for Flex Builder Pro. The Standard edition is a waste of $250.

As far as Flash is concerned. Flashes popularity came from its use in the browser not from the use of the Flash programming software. Flash has also been priced well through competing software. You could buy the real deal for $500 or go with a cheapy for $30 and create some pretty exciting "banners". Flex is not the same thing. We are talking about rich internet applications not bouncing balls and fade-ins.

This situation is the same one that Java found itself in. Giving away a compiler and a SDK does not appeal to many. Most want a fast easy way to be productive right away. If they are sucessful then they go back and buy the larger and more powerful big brother to the free application they started with. This is why Net beans is such an important project. It opens the doors for many that cannot afford to anything more than the time it takes to learn. This is also true with ASP.NET and Silverlight and PHP! The philosophy works. Adobe will have to adopt something similar if they hope to hold the competing technologies at bay. Otherwise Flex will fall into the same jar as ColdFusion.

Not sure I agree. Lots of people pay for IDE's on the java side (jetbrains idea). Flex Builder is not terribly expensive in the grand scheme of things.
Some developers appear to use FlashDevelop which is a free ide for flash.

ummm...silverlight is free. it's free to download the sdk, just like for Flex! In fact, they even have Visual Studio Express(also free)

I'm an IntelliJ user. most people, at least in the java world do not buy. Out of the 7 years I've been using it, I'm most often the only guy using IntelliJ, everyone else is using Eclipse. At most, there have been two of us.

"Hopefully Adobe will find a free IDE to adopt like Net Beans or Eclipse "

They already have. Flex Builder is an extension of Eclipse - in fact, it's offered both as a pre-configured custom Eclipse install (the normal builder app) OR as a plug-in for Eclipse for developers who already have Flex configured.

The reason (I would assume anyway) that the "free" Flex IDE projects are floundering is that you can do free Flex development using Eclipse and the Flex SDK - it's certainly not as nice as the Professional Flex Builder, but seriously - you realize it costs money to make software, right?

Adobe is a software vendor, so hoping they'll give away a full pro IDE for free when a large part of their business is developing IDEs (Dreamweaver and Flash are also IDEs of a sort) seems to me misguided.

I think they've struck a good balance - if you want free you can use the Flex SDK with Eclipse (or probably any IDE) and use BlazeDS or PHP as your server-side, all the way through Enterprise stuff with LiveData Server, or what ever it's called (I'm in the middle using Flex Builder and BlazeDS)

If you're on Windows try FlashDevelop. It has syntax highlighting, code assist (Intellisense) and project management. You tell to where the Flex SDK is installed and it handles all the build details. It does not have a WYSIWYG GUI editor, which is what I suspect you mean by "IDE". That is a disadvantage but it's not that hard to write MXML.

That said, if Adobe wants to remain competitive in the market they will need to match and surpass what their competitors are offering. I'd love a Flex Builder Express release.

Hmm, flashdevelop looks like the way Homesite applications used to be built. Code and run, code and run. I can handle that. I might not like it, but it is a good alternative.