Is Flex 1.5 worth it?

[kevinsb1]

We are developing a flash media player, with Playlist. Similar to what you see
on MTV, ESPN etc.

We are required to use flash 8, but want to know if we should use flex 1.5 or
just got with a pure Action script solutuion.

Some of my questions are:

Do we need backend/server software to use flex 1.5

If so how much is it? (estimate)

Is flex 1.5 stable? Could we experience more issues with flex than a pure
action script solution?

Is there a clear migration path from 1.5 to flex 2.0 ? Do we need to scrap
everything if we move to 2.0, or can we reuse most of what we have in flex 1.5?

[ntsiii]

First a few definite answers:
Yes, you must have the Flex server (a J2EE application, running in a servlet
container).
The last I heard, the Flex server was $30,000 for a four cpu license. I bet
you could negotiate for less though.
Flex 1.5 is very stable

Now, some not-so-definite thoughts:
"Clear migration path"? How high is "up"? You would not have to scrap
anything from Flex 1.5, but the changes, particularly AS 2 to AS 3, are
significant and migration is manual. Good AS coding practice will ease the
migration a lot.

If your in-house processes and talent are sufficient to do the project in pure
Flash, then I might suggest that route, componentizing things as much as
possible with an eye toward leveraging the components in Flex 2 later on. A
large part of Flex's value lies in supporting enterprise level development
processes and methodologies, something that Flash development has been
considered to lack. If this value is not significant for you then again, the
Flash route might be best.

Tracy