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Realistically Flash isn't going to just disappear. I think everyone understands that. We just want an alternative whenever possible. I can certainly understand

by jsz0 17y ago

Realistically Flash isn't going to just disappear. I think everyone understands that. We just want an alternative whenever possible. I can certainly understand that Flash game creators don't want to re-write their perfectly functional games in Objective-C. The Adobe Flash iPhone complier solves that problem nicely. For anything on the web, ads, videos, navigation, etc I don't think it's unreasonable to expect a Flash free alternative. Adobe's embarrassing Flash support on OSX/Linux is a perfect example of why we need alternatives. Adobe apparently cannot even adequately support three major operating systems. How can we rely on one company to provide make or break support for an entire assortment of computing devices? Three major operating systems (at minimum) each with 32bit/64bit variants and multiple browsers in mainstream usage. Half a dozen mobile phone platforms too. To date Adobe has been able to offer good Flash support for a grand total of one operating system. If there weren't real fundamental problems with the security, stability and performance of Flash I don't think we'd be having this conversation at all.

PhilChristensen 17y ago
"If there weren't real fundamental problems with the security, stability and performance of Flash I don't think we'd be having this conversation at all." But that always seems to be the way one technology gives way to another, because it improves on various aspects that were lacking in its predecessor. I think an apt comparison is RealMedia versus RTSP audio streaming. RealMedia had a significant market share (for the time), but the mishandling of the product led to people finding/building/demanding better tech. It's arguable whether Adobe is mishandling Flash at the same level, but Flash could easily go away in favor of HTML5 and Javascript. The only thing lacking right now is the tools, and the Flash IDE would not be difficult to improve upon. On top of that, there's already precedent in the Palm Web OS IDE. Make a similar kind of interface for building easily deployable standards-based web applications, and Flash could end up as a bad dream faster than you think.

by jsz0 17y ago

PhilChristensen 17y ago

"If there weren't real fundamental problems with the security, stability and performance of Flash I don't think we'd be having this conversation at all." But that always seems to be the way one technology gives way to another, because it improves on various aspects that were lacking in its predecessor. I think an apt comparison is RealMedia versus RTSP audio streaming. RealMedia had a significant market share (for the time), but the mishandling of the product led to people finding/building/demanding better tech. It's arguable whether Adobe is mishandling Flash at the same level, but Flash could easily go away in favor of HTML5 and Javascript. The only thing lacking right now is the tools, and the Flash IDE would not be difficult to improve upon. On top of that, there's already precedent in the Palm Web OS IDE. Make a similar kind of interface for building easily deployable standards-based web applications, and Flash could end up as a bad dream faster than you think.