3 ms·

I actually considered doing the web application I'm doing at the moment as firefox only, purely because it heavily relied on SVG. It's very much a niche market

I actually considered doing the web application I'm doing at the moment as firefox only, purely because it heavily relied on SVG. It's very much a niche market where my competitors are desktop applications, and it will be a fairly expensive subscription service so it didn't seem unreasonable to demand users download firefox. Eventually though I just came to realise that the biggest advantage of the web was the ability to have anyone come to my site and be ready to use the product. So in the end I've gone with flash.

mixmax 19y ago
Good decision :-) And all the best of luck...
- greendestiny 19y ago
  I know its not sort of cool, but actually using flex on rails is great.
  - mixmax 19y ago
    Ithink it's cool that you made that decision. But hey, I'm just the business guy ;-)
    - boucher 19y ago
      See, I wholeheartedly agree with you about IE, but flash suffers from many of the same problems. It's a plugin, so right out of the gate a whole class of people won't be able to use it. Plus, even though many have flash installed, versions vary widely, so unless you code for flash 6, again, good luck working with everyone's computer. There's a right way to do things, with built in browser support, across all the major browsers. We spent time up front to make sure things did work, and now we continue to reap the benefits.
      - greendestiny 19y ago
        Admittedly this is adobe propaganda, but their website has stats on flash penetration, its pretty impressive: http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer I did once see on a comment here that more people had flash in their browser than had javascript turned on, but I can't vouch for that. Of course I am using SVG which means firefox or a badly supported plugin for IE. If you didn't need flash's interactivity, graphics or sound it would be pretty silly to use it.
        BrandonM 19y ago
        Flash may "reach" my desktop, and even work sometimes, but I find myself having to kill and restart Firefox a few times a day when it quits working. Even when it's working, there are a lot of sites that don't work correctly. Of course, if you're going for market share and don't care about people like me, Flash is just fine.
        greendestiny 19y ago
        I only care if you're an Orthodontist :) Really though, if you can realistically use html and not flash I'm sure its better. For my application, I've tried it both ways and flash outperforms native firefox SVG support, let alone trying to get it to work in IE with the adobe plugin. I think the big flash question remains whether to use long polling AJAX or flash for server push type applications.
        xirium 19y ago
        Given the standard of software for vertical markets ( http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Rutherford,-Price,-Atkinson,-Strickland,-and-Associates-Dentistry,-Inc.aspx http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Rutherford,-Price,-Atkinson,... ), anything via a browser would be an improvement. In the worse case, you could wrap a browser component around your own client. This would allow you to install the browser of your choice on the platform of your choice.
cstejerean 19y ago
That's likely a good decision. I wonder what Firefox's market share would be though if sites like YouTube or MySpace required the users to download Firefox first. Most of these people are the same ones that install random "free" screen savers and games that their friends send through email. I doubt they would mind having to download just another piece of software.
- mixmax 19y ago
  I would turn the question around: What would Youtube or Myspace's market share be if they required theur users to download firefox first. My bet is that you would never have heard of either of them.

mixmax 19y ago

Good decision :-) And all the best of luck...

greendestiny 19y ago
I know its not sort of cool, but actually using flex on rails is great.
- mixmax 19y ago
  Ithink it's cool that you made that decision. But hey, I'm just the business guy ;-)
  - boucher 19y ago
    See, I wholeheartedly agree with you about IE, but flash suffers from many of the same problems. It's a plugin, so right out of the gate a whole class of people won't be able to use it. Plus, even though many have flash installed, versions vary widely, so unless you code for flash 6, again, good luck working with everyone's computer. There's a right way to do things, with built in browser support, across all the major browsers. We spent time up front to make sure things did work, and now we continue to reap the benefits.
    - greendestiny 19y ago
      Admittedly this is adobe propaganda, but their website has stats on flash penetration, its pretty impressive: http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer http://www.adobe.com/products/player_census/flashplayer I did once see on a comment here that more people had flash in their browser than had javascript turned on, but I can't vouch for that. Of course I am using SVG which means firefox or a badly supported plugin for IE. If you didn't need flash's interactivity, graphics or sound it would be pretty silly to use it.
      - BrandonM 19y ago
        Flash may "reach" my desktop, and even work sometimes, but I find myself having to kill and restart Firefox a few times a day when it quits working. Even when it's working, there are a lot of sites that don't work correctly. Of course, if you're going for market share and don't care about people like me, Flash is just fine.
        greendestiny 19y ago
        I only care if you're an Orthodontist :) Really though, if you can realistically use html and not flash I'm sure its better. For my application, I've tried it both ways and flash outperforms native firefox SVG support, let alone trying to get it to work in IE with the adobe plugin. I think the big flash question remains whether to use long polling AJAX or flash for server push type applications.
        xirium 19y ago
        Given the standard of software for vertical markets ( http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Rutherford,-Price,-Atkinson,-Strickland,-and-Associates-Dentistry,-Inc.aspx http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Rutherford,-Price,-Atkinson,... ), anything via a browser would be an improvement. In the worse case, you could wrap a browser component around your own client. This would allow you to install the browser of your choice on the platform of your choice.

cstejerean 19y ago

That's likely a good decision. I wonder what Firefox's market share would be though if sites like YouTube or MySpace required the users to download Firefox first. Most of these people are the same ones that install random "free" screen savers and games that their friends send through email. I doubt they would mind having to download just another piece of software.

mixmax 19y ago
I would turn the question around: What would Youtube or Myspace's market share be if they required theur users to download firefox first. My bet is that you would never have heard of either of them.