4 ms·

> Nothing worked right. One thing worked right: the app looked the same and acted the same everywhere where it could run.

cmrdporcupine 2y ago
WHich was... only windows computers since Flash barely worked on Macs or Linux, and never properly made it to mobile, where it was also a complete battery drain when it did in fact do things... sometimes.
- dakom 2y ago
  Eh.. lots of projects targeted mobile app stores by authoring in Flash and using the GPU accelerated stuff. Starling was a semi-blessed framework. Worked perfectly well, no battery drain. Lots of "native" apps were authored that way (and still are, you see the same approach with Unity etc.) Browser plugins could have been fixed to catch up, the VM itself wasn't the problem in terms of drain
  - cmrdporcupine 2y ago
    Not my recollection at all. Adobe invested almost 0 effort in getting their runtime working on non-x86 platforms. It was pathetic, honestly, how many years passed before they had any kind of passable implementation there. Adobe Flex was interesting and not awful. The problem was the runtime. And the company behind it. Who remains awful.
    - dakom 2y ago
      Do you remember Angry Birds? https://villekoskela.org/2012/02/15/angry-birds-facebook-released/ https://villekoskela.org/2012/02/15/angry-birds-facebook-rel...
- rad_gruchalski 2y ago
  I have different memories from before 2012. Flex apps I built were used on all 3 and worked flawlessly in AIR. Looked and behaved exactly the same everywhere. Indeed, though, barely made to mobile. But Nokia N95 was pretty cool.
  - c-hendricks 2y ago
    What was the process of installing AIR like on Linux?
    - rad_gruchalski 2y ago
      I really don’t know. Back in 2009 I was contracting for this company in Worthing. They have a US location in Florida, and are selling aircraft spare parts. I have built an application in Flex for them which was used for taking all sales orders, place purchase orders, manage clients, suppliers, stock, and invoice by people on a call floor. It was great, it worked in every browser where Flash Player could be installed. When AIR came out, in became a standalone application with a wrapper loading the swf file generated for the web app. It worked on Windows and Mac, Snow Leopard back then. It was great, app could be updated by making the new swf available for download on the local network, and waiting for users to restart the app. They did that twice a day: when going to lunch, and when going home. The app remembered everything they were working on. It was great. It took us good three years, it was eventually feature complete and used by 120 people on two local installations synchronised back then with Dropbox (hey, I didn’t know any better and it actually worked great over a hurricane m). We have replaced a home-grown COBOL app.
JimDabell 2y ago
No, that definitely wasn’t the case. Things that worked fine as Flash on a Windows machine could render weird on a Mac or Linux. They definitely claimed this though.
- rad_gruchalski 2y ago
  Adobe Flex and AIR were two of the best technologies I ever worked with.
wat10000 2y ago
That’s a bug, not a feature. Apps should match the OS they’re running on.
- rad_gruchalski 2y ago
  It was a feature for me. Especially in the Flex 3 era, and when AIR came out. That was truly magical period of time.
- Rohansi 2y ago
  It's 2025 and most apps do not match the OS they run on. What would you even want apps to match on Windows? There are different styles depending on what you build with (Win32/Forms, WPF, UWP, etc).
  - wat10000 2y ago
    I'm painfully aware. Modern apps are mostly terrible. I don't know or care what apps would match on Windows. I don't use Windows. On the systems I do use, I want apps to look like they fit in.
    - johnecheck 2y ago
      I've never understood this "every program on my device should look like the same company designed it" mentality. Nothing against using the pre-built ui components provided by the OS, but looking down on a developer that decides to use something else? Just weird to me. A checkbox is a checkbox, it really doesn't matter whether App A's checkboxes look identical to App B. Now, if App A's checkboxes look different than App A's other checkboxes, then I'll complain.
      - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
        It's mental overhead; if App A's checkboxs look different than the ones in App B, then I have to switch that mental context every time I switch windows. If everything uses the same controls, then that consistency means users don't have to think about the controls.

cmrdporcupine 2y ago

WHich was... only windows computers since Flash barely worked on Macs or Linux, and never properly made it to mobile, where it was also a complete battery drain when it did in fact do things... sometimes.

dakom 2y ago
Eh.. lots of projects targeted mobile app stores by authoring in Flash and using the GPU accelerated stuff. Starling was a semi-blessed framework. Worked perfectly well, no battery drain. Lots of "native" apps were authored that way (and still are, you see the same approach with Unity etc.) Browser plugins could have been fixed to catch up, the VM itself wasn't the problem in terms of drain
- cmrdporcupine 2y ago
  Not my recollection at all. Adobe invested almost 0 effort in getting their runtime working on non-x86 platforms. It was pathetic, honestly, how many years passed before they had any kind of passable implementation there. Adobe Flex was interesting and not awful. The problem was the runtime. And the company behind it. Who remains awful.
  - dakom 2y ago
    Do you remember Angry Birds? https://villekoskela.org/2012/02/15/angry-birds-facebook-released/ https://villekoskela.org/2012/02/15/angry-birds-facebook-rel...
rad_gruchalski 2y ago
I have different memories from before 2012. Flex apps I built were used on all 3 and worked flawlessly in AIR. Looked and behaved exactly the same everywhere. Indeed, though, barely made to mobile. But Nokia N95 was pretty cool.
- c-hendricks 2y ago
  What was the process of installing AIR like on Linux?
  - rad_gruchalski 2y ago
    I really don’t know. Back in 2009 I was contracting for this company in Worthing. They have a US location in Florida, and are selling aircraft spare parts. I have built an application in Flex for them which was used for taking all sales orders, place purchase orders, manage clients, suppliers, stock, and invoice by people on a call floor. It was great, it worked in every browser where Flash Player could be installed. When AIR came out, in became a standalone application with a wrapper loading the swf file generated for the web app. It worked on Windows and Mac, Snow Leopard back then. It was great, app could be updated by making the new swf available for download on the local network, and waiting for users to restart the app. They did that twice a day: when going to lunch, and when going home. The app remembered everything they were working on. It was great. It took us good three years, it was eventually feature complete and used by 120 people on two local installations synchronised back then with Dropbox (hey, I didn’t know any better and it actually worked great over a hurricane m). We have replaced a home-grown COBOL app.

JimDabell 2y ago

No, that definitely wasn’t the case. Things that worked fine as Flash on a Windows machine could render weird on a Mac or Linux. They definitely claimed this though.

rad_gruchalski 2y ago
Adobe Flex and AIR were two of the best technologies I ever worked with.

wat10000 2y ago

That’s a bug, not a feature. Apps should match the OS they’re running on.

rad_gruchalski 2y ago
It was a feature for me. Especially in the Flex 3 era, and when AIR came out. That was truly magical period of time.
Rohansi 2y ago
It's 2025 and most apps do not match the OS they run on. What would you even want apps to match on Windows? There are different styles depending on what you build with (Win32/Forms, WPF, UWP, etc).
- wat10000 2y ago
  I'm painfully aware. Modern apps are mostly terrible. I don't know or care what apps would match on Windows. I don't use Windows. On the systems I do use, I want apps to look like they fit in.
  - johnecheck 2y ago
    I've never understood this "every program on my device should look like the same company designed it" mentality. Nothing against using the pre-built ui components provided by the OS, but looking down on a developer that decides to use something else? Just weird to me. A checkbox is a checkbox, it really doesn't matter whether App A's checkboxes look identical to App B. Now, if App A's checkboxes look different than App A's other checkboxes, then I'll complain.
    - yjftsjthsd-h 2y ago
      It's mental overhead; if App A's checkboxs look different than the ones in App B, then I have to switch that mental context every time I switch windows. If everything uses the same controls, then that consistency means users don't have to think about the controls.