Be Excellent To Each Other

So not only does Jobs officially hate flash:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/bl ... etter-dead

So do Microsoft:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/30/micr ... -is-html5/

... and it seems everyone is looking towards HTML5 for the future. I'm not at all savvy when it comes to web standards so can someone explain if this is (a) good or not (b) what is better/worse about HTML5 than Flash, and (c) are Adobe fucked?

HDTV is bumming Flash though, so I think it will be lingering around.

Adobe still have Dreamweaver and Photoshop to bring coin in anyway.

Flash's days certainly seem to be a bit limited unless Adobe can pull their finger out and make it a decent platform, but Adobe have a vast suite of products (remember, they bought Macromedia to aquire Flash, and were a very successful company beforehand) to make money from.

That said, I have many complaints about Adobe, and Flash is low on the list.

Flash is quite a small part of Adobe's range. What they need to do is make it output HTML5, of course.

Adobe are are shower of bastards. 18 months ago I had the choice of buying a new version of Premiere or going for Final Cut on the Mac. Not only was Final Cut better value but. critically, Apple allow you to install the software on a desktop and a laptop as long as they aren't run concurrently (and you get get around that if need by by taking the laptop off the network). So someone like me can have it on the office edit suite and the laptop and without forking out twice. This shows a good understanding of how their clientbase work.

Adobe want a licence for each machine although it can be transferred. But imagine going somewhere with the laptop and having forgotten to transfer the licence beforehand.

Also Adobe bought Cooledit, doubled the price overnight and then bloated it to high heaven.

Apple are evil, no question, but they are far less evil than Adobe.

Nah, Apple are evil, Adobe are incompetent.

I'd go with that.

I don't think it'll happen, but it'd be disappointing if browser support for Flash dried up. ActionScript mk3 is actually pretty decent, and - despite what some folk would like to think - HTML canvas isn't going to be able to match the breadth of things it can do for a long time.

Adobe are pretty sucky as a company, but Flash is ubiquitous and will never die as long as there are games.
HTML 5 can do movies, crappy flash web presentations, but it can't do games.

'Yeah but games are frivolous and don't matter'...
Yeah right. That's why M$ sunk 4bn or so into xBox.. thats what ATI & nVidia base their entire business model on - games.

OI! JOBS! MOVIES ARE NOT THE ONLY ACTIVE CONTENT YOU HAVE IN A BROWSER, YOU STUPID CNUT!

(Edit: M$ are only in it to plug 'Silverlight', seeing as they tried to smooze into spreading proprietary Java and got stuffed when they a - got caught and -b- consumers can't be arsed to install Java anyway, so now they have Silverlight, which isnt a rip-off of Flash, oh no. Shame no fecker can be arsed to install it either)

I've seen HTML 5 games. But when the games become more complicated and numerous, I reckon it'll give a massive thrust into people using decent browsers. Possibly.

Flash isn't going to die any time soon, but the lead it holds in certain areas is shrinking at a fair pace.

Not while they have things like Photoshop, I'd imagine.

Flash is not so important to them.

Oddly enough, Microsoft didn't mention Silverlight in their response on this issue.

Adobe are where Microsoft were a few years ago. Despite having some badly coded products, they still have a monopoly and associated cash cows. They just assume they can keep milking the market as long as they want.

As we all know, Microsoft did eventually get its arse kicked and have been forced to respond with better products. Maybe HTML5 is that arse kicking for Adobe, as it directly affects Flash.

(As an aside, Silverlight is pretty good. Better than Flash, I would say. But doomed because it is, essentially, pointless. Somewhat ironically, just because Silverlight is better than Flash does not mean it can succeed against the Adobe monopoly.)

Silverlight is a challenger to Flex, rather than Flash. It's all about dynamic content and being a successor to ajax. It'll be a rare day that you'll see Silverlight games or movies.

Amusingly, at launch, the Windows Phone 7 won't support Slverlight in the browser, even though all the native apps are Slverlight.

Also, Silverlight is awesome to develop in, Flex is hateful.

There are loads of both.

"Loads" compared to Flash?

In a comparison with Flash, certainly not - the ubiquity and maturity of Flash will probably see it hold the #1 position for many years to come, despite Apple's best efforts. However, in terms of overall Silverlight output, games etc. aren't particularly rare. I had a quick look at the Silverlight "showcase" - of the 934 applications published, 129 are tagged as Casual Games and 245 tagged as Entertainment, accounting for ~40% of the total.

Except Quake2, for example.

Adobe Founders write a letter back at Apple

Not sure I particularly see their point. The whole letter lacks focus and feels confused.

Oh, and The Truth About Flash. Another interesting read.

Unless they run *nix, obv.