I'd take a good look at it. You can also build HTML and Ajax apps for instance. I also think you have some preconceptions about the Flash platform that aren't particularly valid; it's quite a mature platform and certainly not hacked together. The fact that Flash has it's roots in animation has little to do with its current capabilities, either on the web or on the desktop.

Adobe AIR is a runtime. Great tool for those fluent in XHTML/CSS/Javascript/Actionscript to deliver apps for desktop.

If you are a web developer and want to leverage on your existing knowledge to target desktop market, AIR is the way to go.

You dont need Flash/Flex to build AIR apps. The Air SDK is available cost free at adobe.com/products/air/tools/sdk/ Or you can use aptana.com/air

A comparable open source tool: titaniumapp.com

AIR is a wrapper around HTML (or Flash) that add OS-level hooks. It's like a super-charged Javascript. For instance: want to write to the file system? In AIR, Javascript (or Flash) gets an easy way to do this.

BTW, for anyone hacking AIR on the HTML side, check out ExtJS. Best JS framework I've seen for developing apps that look "app-like".

From what I heard it's kinda like running Flash apps on your desktop.

It is exactly that, though AIR also provides desktop-level capabilities like local file and device access.

AIR is another attempt at the age-old "write once, run anywhere" concept. One reason I left HTML/Javascript web design and got into Flash was that I wanted the incredible luxury of writing for a single platform with a single set of implementation quirks; AIR is an attempt to extend that luxury to the desktop.

It's got quite a few steps left to take; the runtime install is seamless and only happens once, but the app install screens are needlessly scary, as we've discussed before. Still, for many situations AIR is not an unreasonable choice.