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Quote: It’s not about HTML 5 vs Flash. They’re mutually beneficial. The more important question is the freedom of choice on the web... Look at the iPhone heli
by raganwald 17y ago
Quote:
It’s not about HTML 5 vs Flash. They’re mutually beneficial. The more important question is the freedom of choice on the web...
Look at the iPhone helicopter we just saw — why should I only be able to use an iPhone for that? Why can’t you do that with any phone? If you look at what’s going on now, it’s like railroads in the 1800′s. People were using different gauged rails. Your cars would literally not run on those rails. That’s counter to the web. The ‘rails’ now are companies forcing people to write for a particular OS, which has a high cost to switch.
Translation:
We will lower the cost to switch phones by moving the switching cost out of the hardware and into the tooling. Then we will benefit because you will need to buy our tools to write applications and you won't be able to switch tools.
Adobe will make all the tracks the same gauge, but you won't be able to manufacture a locomotive without their tools.
p.s. I upmodded this post because it's important to hear what they have to say, not because I support what they're saying.
- ilike 17y agoUpvoting!=I agree Upvoting==This story deserves to be popular.
- not_an_alien 17y agoFunny, because you're able to create SWF content using only free, open source software, including their own compiler. I don't believe your point holds. Do you ever do any Flash work?
- raganwald 17y agoThe same could be said of the CLR, and there have been efforts like Mono to replicate it independently of Microsoft. Nevertheless, in practice Microsoft control the .NET platform and the CLR. Like any other platform, they can control what underlying features of the OS or hardware it does or doesn't support, and they can give their tooling an advantage over free, open source tooling. For example, what if they add a new set of op codes to the next release? Don't their tools arrive in the marketplace with full support of the new op codes while the free, open source tools must toil away to replicate them? We can quibble about how much advantage their tools have in the marketplace, but unlike the late Sun Microsystems they are very clear about being in the business of making money from tools and commoditizing operating systems, browsers, and hardware to support that business model.
- DrSprout 17y agoExcept Microsoft doesn't provide fully functional implementations of the CLR for a reasonable set of platforms. Microsoft intentionally crippled the CLR on non-Windows OSes, and continues to do so.
- daeken 17y ago> Microsoft intentionally crippled the CLR on non-Windows OSes, and continues to do so. Citation needed. I'm a heavy .NET user on both MS.NET and Mono, and I've never seen this crippling you speak of.
- deleted 17y ago[deleted]
- ZeroGravitas 17y agoI think Flash on phones for the web is appalling, and I generally hope it dies out as HTML5 matures, being used mainly to fill the gaps for users of IE. But, having said all that, I really can't see any problem with a Flash IDE that compiles down to native(ish) apps on various phones and tablets. I don't see any way for them to achieve lock-in via this route so what's the problem?