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Sometimes I think Steve Jobs' greatest contribution may have been killing flash. Today is a glorious day.

by tbrock 11y ago

martin-adams 11y ago
But he did give us iTunes on Windows, so in my opinion, that about balances things out.
- dplgk 11y ago
  and also iTunes on Mac. And WiFi on Mac. and XCode on Mac. and App Store on Mac.
  - danappelxx 11y ago
    Can you elaborate on the issues with iTunes, Wifi, and Xcode? I know the app store is just a wrapper (which makes it pretty bad) but Xcode is a wonderful (but buggy) IDE, I don't understand how you can make WiFi bad, and I really have no idea where they went wrong with iTunes.
    - dplgk 11y ago
      iTunes is a slow, bloated mess with UI that gets worse with every release. Classic dumbness: Adding 1 song or photo to a phone requires erasing the entire phone because it's synced from another computer? Or trying to sync a folder of photos from computer -> brand new iPhone with brand new iTunes doesn't work. Just stalled progress bar forever. WiFi: There are constantly WiFI problems with OSX and iOS. From plain-ol' reliability to straight up bugs. This isn't including boring DNS stupidity from OSX. https://www.google.com/search?q=osx+wifi+bug https://www.google.com/search?q=osx+wifi+bug Xcode: Absurdly slugish and crashing constantly.
  - vxNsr 11y ago
    And don't forget QuickTime!! The all time worst media player.
    - art0rz 11y ago
      To be fair, in the time of RealPlayer and such, QuickTime was the least bloated and best performing video player around. There really isn't a use for it in 2016, though.
    - goldbrick 11y ago
      Have we forgotten RealPlayer so quickly?
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
skocznymroczny 11y ago
I am not sure if replacing Flash with Javascript is glorious...
- CodyReichert 11y ago
  Please, tell us more about how JavaScript is worse than Flash.
  - xioxox 11y ago
    You can't as easily block adverts based on it.
epistasis 11y ago
This really wasn't a Steve Jobs contribution in the least, it was Adobe. Flash on mobile was terrible, Steve Jobs may have been the messenger for that but he wasn't the decision maker.
- rjvir 11y ago
  Apple not supporting Flash was a crucial part of it's demise, though. Without that, we might be running Flash on mobile today, even though it was terrible.
  - art0rz 11y ago
    They did actually support it for a while on Android, but Apple never wanted to support third party browser plugins on iOS, and since the Android port was horribly slow even on the most basic swfs and was a huge hack, Adobe decided to drop it. AIR is still supported on both platforms, though (and I hear it's quite good).
- sp332 11y ago
  Being terrible didn't stop them from putting it on Android. I'm sure Adobe would have loved to be on iOS if they'd been allowed into the browser.
- rifung 11y ago
  Flash wasn't even supported on iOS. I'd argue that was huge in killing off Flash, since anybody who wanted to make their site work on mobile could no longer use Flash.
Chris_Newton 11y ago
There is a certain irony that after all the arguments about how plugins are bad and we must kill Flash, actually video on iOS devices typically still plays via a plugin today, just a different one. Moreover, because of Apple’s policy about browsers all having to use the same engine on those devices, no-one can provide an alternative browser that does better. This situation breaks everything from basic cookie mechanics to possibilities for caching short videos for offline use, which should have been letting us do all kinds of interesting and useful things now that the videos are supposed to be part of the normal content on a page.

Sometimes I think Steve Jobs' greatest contribution may have been killing flash. Today is a glorious day.

by tbrock 11y ago

Sometimes I think Steve Jobs' greatest contribution may have been killing flash. Today is a glorious day.

martin-adams 11y ago

But he did give us iTunes on Windows, so in my opinion, that about balances things out.

dplgk 11y ago
and also iTunes on Mac. And WiFi on Mac. and XCode on Mac. and App Store on Mac.
- danappelxx 11y ago
  Can you elaborate on the issues with iTunes, Wifi, and Xcode? I know the app store is just a wrapper (which makes it pretty bad) but Xcode is a wonderful (but buggy) IDE, I don't understand how you can make WiFi bad, and I really have no idea where they went wrong with iTunes.
  - dplgk 11y ago
    iTunes is a slow, bloated mess with UI that gets worse with every release. Classic dumbness: Adding 1 song or photo to a phone requires erasing the entire phone because it's synced from another computer? Or trying to sync a folder of photos from computer -> brand new iPhone with brand new iTunes doesn't work. Just stalled progress bar forever. WiFi: There are constantly WiFI problems with OSX and iOS. From plain-ol' reliability to straight up bugs. This isn't including boring DNS stupidity from OSX. https://www.google.com/search?q=osx+wifi+bug https://www.google.com/search?q=osx+wifi+bug Xcode: Absurdly slugish and crashing constantly.
- vxNsr 11y ago
  And don't forget QuickTime!! The all time worst media player.
  - art0rz 11y ago
    To be fair, in the time of RealPlayer and such, QuickTime was the least bloated and best performing video player around. There really isn't a use for it in 2016, though.
  - goldbrick 11y ago
    Have we forgotten RealPlayer so quickly?
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

skocznymroczny 11y ago

I am not sure if replacing Flash with Javascript is glorious...

CodyReichert 11y ago
Please, tell us more about how JavaScript is worse than Flash.
- xioxox 11y ago
  You can't as easily block adverts based on it.

epistasis 11y ago

This really wasn't a Steve Jobs contribution in the least, it was Adobe. Flash on mobile was terrible, Steve Jobs may have been the messenger for that but he wasn't the decision maker.

rjvir 11y ago
Apple not supporting Flash was a crucial part of it's demise, though. Without that, we might be running Flash on mobile today, even though it was terrible.
- art0rz 11y ago
  They did actually support it for a while on Android, but Apple never wanted to support third party browser plugins on iOS, and since the Android port was horribly slow even on the most basic swfs and was a huge hack, Adobe decided to drop it. AIR is still supported on both platforms, though (and I hear it's quite good).
sp332 11y ago
Being terrible didn't stop them from putting it on Android. I'm sure Adobe would have loved to be on iOS if they'd been allowed into the browser.
rifung 11y ago
Flash wasn't even supported on iOS. I'd argue that was huge in killing off Flash, since anybody who wanted to make their site work on mobile could no longer use Flash.

Chris_Newton 11y ago

There is a certain irony that after all the arguments about how plugins are bad and we must kill Flash, actually video on iOS devices typically still plays via a plugin today, just a different one. Moreover, because of Apple’s policy about browsers all having to use the same engine on those devices, no-one can provide an alternative browser that does better. This situation breaks everything from basic cookie mechanics to possibilities for caching short videos for offline use, which should have been letting us do all kinds of interesting and useful things now that the videos are supposed to be part of the normal content on a page.