The state of Flash

[rich_roast]

Article here via Scripting news.

Some might already be aware that I regard Flash dimly. Whilst I won't deny its versatility and that it's pushed the web in good direction (and who doesn't like the odd browser game?) I've always thought that it's buggy, closed-off, very poorly supported on Linux, and overused by designers.

Dave Winer makes, at the end of his response, a (tenuous) call to Adobe to free and open source Flash. I don't see this happening "very quickly" myself, but it's certainly an interesting idea, and one that I would like to see happen. I've submitted bugs on Adobe's tracker for them to seem to vanish into the ether, whereas on open source projects I've always had a response in one way or another. I always thought that one day an open source alternative to Flash would appear (Gnash is a bit different in that it's just a player for the existing technology, I mean an entirely different project), but from the POV of not having to reinvent the wheel for Adobe to open Flash would be a dream that one never dared dream come true.

Well, just throwing it out there for discussion. What's the state of Flash for you? Would you still buy an iPhone/iPad even if they'll never run Flash as it is? Do you think Adobe should liberate it? Does Flash work for you, or do you, like me, currently block it with a Firefox extension? What do you think the future is for Flash and online media? And if it were liberated, would you benefit one day by being able to make Flash animations on Linux? It's the one thing that I'm not sure is doable on a Linux box (someone will point me out on this if you can get whatever the development software is working in Wine).

[XidCat]

I think Flash is pretty entrenched, ie it's not going to disappear from the Web anytime soon. There has to be an angle Adobe is working, are they getting money from Flash? If not, it would only make sense to open source Flash. It would free up development assets at Adobe to enhance or create profitable software.

The iPad/iPhone? Wouldn't own either one, Flash or no Flash. Overpriced money suckers...

Rarely I need a web page with Flash enabled, it always works well on 32 bit, but 64 bit is a roll of the dice. I will say that, even in 64 bit, Flash seems to work much better on Mint than any other distro I have tried. Long live Flashblock!

[rich_roast]

I assume Adobe gains a fair bit of revenue selling CS4, although I've just become aware of a free, open source development tool. Since Flash has, as you rightly point out, become such an integral part of Internet content, one suspects that they sell a fair number of copies of the development software, and the last I looked it wasn't cheap. Presumably opening Flash's source would make it much easier to create a rival, free os development/authoring suite, which Adobe perhaps doesn't want to see.

It's an interesting argument that it would free resources to focus on their other products. I begin to wonder if it's quite that simple, though; presumably there would be a hiatus during which staff working on Flash would get up to speed on a new project. But it's still possible to look at it that way. Cheers.

[XidCat]

It's an interesting argument that it would free resources to focus on their other products. I begin to wonder if it's quite that simple, though; presumably there would be a hiatus during which staff working on Flash would get up to speed on a new project. But it's still possible to look at it that way. Cheers.

My assumption in freeing resources was that Flash was not making money. In that case, retooling could be profitable. You bring up an interesting point too. That is opening the source would not only allow for modification of the original Flash, but also serve as the seeds for a rival... that in itself could well be a good reason to keep it under wraps.

I checked, CS4 Pro is available from Adobe for US$600 (£437). I tried to find a recent compare/contrast for FlashDevelop and CS4, but no luck.

[DrHu]

Some might already be aware that I regard Flash dimly. Whilst I won't deny its versatility and that it's pushed the web in good direction (and who doesn't like the odd browser game?) I've always thought that it's buggy, closed-off, very poorly supported on Linux, and overused by designers.

Yes, I agree with that flash only websites, with the sometimes missing skip button, are not an appealing way to view a website, and they did go overboard on flash(y) design elements


Nevertheless, there are some nice Linux alternatives for that type of development (small runtime, animation packages)
--checking for link, forgetting name

[XidCat]

An interesting article on the Flash wars... http://www.pcworld.com/article/188549/a ... k=rss_news

[BuzzKiller]

Kinda like flash and working on building a Mint-based media PC to watch favorite TV shows through fancast, hulu, etc and getting rid of my cable TV bill. Gonna save me about $100 a month by doing that.

[XidCat]

Just bumped into this also... http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20000037-264.html Seems like Flash is a hot topic these days...

[linuxviolin]

Flash? Another crap! Quite unfortunately it is everywhere, no matter how crappy it is!

For instance, you can want to read this.

Some excerpts:

Adobe Flash. It's everywhere. Not all of us want it, but many are forced into submission simply because it's weaseled its way into a myriad of applied and common uses.

(...)

So if you were thinking that you're safe with a Linux-based system or OS X, you're unfortunately incorrect.

This vulnerability has apparently been known about since December of last year, but then it was merely regarded as a bug. It probably began to be exploited around the beginning of July.

(..)

it's no secret that Flash isn't liked by a lot of people for varied reasons

[nukm]

Kinda like flash and working on building a Mint-based media PC to watch favorite TV shows through fancast, hulu, etc and getting rid of my cable TV bill. Gonna save me about $100 a month by doing that.

Not for long - internet by subscription will soon be here. You will love the Cloud and you will join if you want "internet".

Flash is dead unless they join one of the alliances or form their own. Other alliances are being formed to eventually sell subscriptions to the Cloud. TV was once "free". Local TV stations now will soon go the route of news papers. Wired phone service is also soon kaput. The lines will no longer be maintained in the US.

[BuzzKiller]

Not for long - internet by subscription will soon be here. You will love the Cloud and you will join if you want "internet".

Flash is dead unless they join one of the alliances or form their own. Other alliances are being formed to eventually sell subscriptions to the Cloud. TV was once "free". Local TV stations now will soon go the route of news papers. Wired phone service is also soon kaput. The lines will no longer be maintained in the US.

Already have a subscription to internet via Comcast. Maybe I misunderstand what you are getting at. Not sure if I am on the bandwagon completely with the cloud. Makes sense with some things. Facebook for sharing pics with family and friends as an example though facebook is not strictly a cloud example. Sure is slick, though. Sure is slick because I can access from my PCs and blackberry and show when situation warrants. Not sure if I would want to keep any docs there though. Not that I have anything that would be worthwhile storing there.

I agree wired phones are kaput or nearly so. Haven't had a landline in over 5 years. But phone lines will have to hang out for some time longer. Several folks I work with can only get DSL because they are out in the sticks.[/hijack]

Will continue to use flash as long as favorite TV shows are available on the web that way. Beats the c$@& out of sitting through 13 minutes of commercials for a 30 minute show. 13 minutes is a bit of an exageration but it sure seems that way sometimes