Flash Is Dead

[SomeGuy99]

I'm completely sick of Flash. It's all anyone talks about.

Who the hell cares? I certainly don't... the threshold has been reached...

Every day is exactly the same - endless discussion of Apple products or Adobe Flash. Change the record, somebody? Please? I have this overwhelming urge to shove drawing pins in my eyes.

This isn't a rant at any of the posters here. I'm just expressing how sick I've become of Flash discussion.

I wish Flash would die, just so nobody would talk about it anymore. But then, there'll always be some topic which gets discussed over... and over... and over again... until the next thing.

 

[Prometheus]

Go stick drawing pins in your eyes, then.

It's not going away since it's, like it or not, an important part of web usage for many people.

 

[Natro]

Even if Flash is dead and an obsolete technology, there are still many places that it is still used. Even the IP addressing scheme for the internet is "yesterday's technology" but it is still being used. It is a vicious cycle, however... the technology is still supported because many people still utilize it and people still utilize the technology because it is still supported.

 

[SomeGuy99]

Go stick drawing pins in your eyes, then.

It's not going away since it's, like it or not, an important part of web usage for many people.

Why can't we discuss something else? Jpeg vs Gif? Oh, those naughty Gif people and their patented formats!

I prefer lossless formats like bitmap myself.

I've been making stuff in Flash for over ten years. It was/ is fine... but somehow it's become some never ending political discussion? It's the new 'Microsoft are evil' or 'Apple are for sheep' or 'Google are sinister' conversation.

I wish nobody cared enough to endlessly discuss it. I just want it to... end...

At the moment, I feel like this guy:

Thanks for listening to my tired ranting guys.

 

[VRAndy]

Why can't we discuss something else? Jpeg vs Gif? Oh, those naughty Gif people and their patented formats!

Patented or not those formats work nicely on Pandora. There's no point talking about something that 'just works'.

If Gif files didn't work on Pandora you can imagine there would be people talking about it. ("It's obsolete! Just use PNG!!!" "Yea, thanks, that helps.")

but somehow it's become some never ending political discussion?

To the extent that this is true, it's because of Steve Jobs.

(Sure Stallman also thinks flash is evil, but he thinks everything is evil. People have stopped listening.)

-Andy

P.S. : "Gif" is pronounced "Jif", like it was in the old days. Everyone who thinks otherwise is WRONG WRONG WRONG.

 

[paulguy]

Yeah, flash is still relevent. A lot of sites continue to use it, and there are a lot of old games and animations in existance. Also, HTML5 support still sucks and is slow, the featureset doesn't replace flash and making animations is very difficult.

 

[greendots]

Video streaming sites might switch to HTML5, but I like browsing Newgrounds when I'm bored, so for me Flash would be frikkin' awesome. For now, Android is the only other non-PC device (portable or not) that I know of with a useful version of Flash. Flash 6/7 is hardly useful, most things require Flash 9 now.

Maemo does have adobe flash 10 too you know ?
For video streaming, the goods free-software implementations of flash does support this prety well I've been tell. Gnash is not working as browser plugin currently, but will be fixed. don't worry

We may/will have adobe flash running. Be it by hack or having a release made from adobe (dreams is not forbidden on these boards, so mali dont delete my post yet again)

Maemo only has Flash 9.4 afaik so some video sites do not work.

 

[Fishbong]

What a stupid topic. How can Flash be obsolete when there is nothing else that offers its functionality right now?

 

[lulzfish]

"HTML 4"
Silly poll answers

I love this thread.
Serious answer: Who's we? _I_ don't need Flash. The world does not need Flash, but some designers like their IDE or art program or whatever it is, so until it exports to HMTL5 (The one with canvas and sound), they'll _want_ it.

But it's not dead. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's a decent idea, that's been terribly implemented by all the wrong people, but it's still popular because of mindshare and because nobody is making a strong effort to dethrone it.

What I'm saying is, fuck you, shut up, Flash will go away once people stop using it. It might take a while. Fight the powah.

 

[jdbye]

What a stupid topic. How can Flash be obsolete when there is nothing else that offers its functionality right now?

Silverlight?
But honestly it really doesn't matter if something is obsolete or not, what matters is supporting the formats everyone uses, and no one can argue that flash is a widely used format, whether it will be used in the future or not doesn't change that it's being used now, if it stops being used then we can worry about that when it happens. Until then, people should support formats that are being used, instead of trying to force people to switch formats by supporting only what they want people to use (I'm looking at you, Steve Jobs!)
Users and developers should have the freedom to choose.

 

[Tom`]

HTML 5 is good for video/audio, maybe other stuff, but that's really what most of us (i. e. me) currently use Flash for. Maybe it can't be a complete Flash replacement, but it can certainly replace the majority of popular Flash stuff. What really needs to die is the whole "making websites entirely or substantially in Flash" thing.

Also, the GIF patents expired a while ago.

 

[davidgro]

A couple weeks ago i would have said No, flash is nowhere near dead (youtube.com/html5 being the exception to the rule).

But then at work this morning I was handed an iPad with the instruction "Get familiar with Safari [and how the company's site works on it], in preparation for us supporting iPad/iPhone" - this means they are converting not only flash videos, but also flash applets that show layouts and such (I don't want to say specifics in case they aren't publicizing this yet)

Maybe Jobs really Is that powerful an influence. I wouldn't have thought so, but this is strong evidence to me.

 

[Alpha2]

A few apps and a nice html5 demo isnt going to change the fact that the ease of use and like a decade of a headstart means even if people start today it'll be years before everything switches from flash. There are hundreds if not thousands of things on the internet that rely on flash that arent going anywhere.

 

[Fzero]

I think the same, if HTML5 does turn out to be just as good for animation [adverts], games and the like, they'll probably be years of both technologies running parallel before/if Flash phases out

personally my want for Flash was pretty much for YouTube, the rest I could get by without, and I don't play Flash games hardly ever... I'd miss out on some nice animations i guess [stuff like zoomquilt] but I can enjoy those type links on my laptop at other times, it's not a day-to-day thing for me, like YouTube

Titan Uranus, you know you can watch BBC and freeview channels on Www.tvcatchup.com [iPhone.tvcatchup.com for mobile version] - it uses that H.264 not Flash so works on my old iPhone, and I hope Pandora too.
Your name is pure pr0n star status, tight in your anus made us laugh ha!

 

[Nat495]

I doubt flash is going away anytime soon. There are just too many flash games out there and those aren't easily ported to HTML5. I think if there was as much discussion about IPv4 vs IPv6 we would have switched by now. After all, there's a more pressing need to debate that than Flash vs HTML5

 

[Blue Ion]

Oh, come on, really?
An other thread like this?

There are dozens of these in this forum, with the same conclusions, same smart and stupid arguments, and with my blood pressure rose.

Do you really think Adobe will let Flash wither and die? HTML5 is still ages away in terms of capability and speed, and by the time HTML5 reaches the same level that flash has today, flash will have grown far away once again.

I'm interested in the success of HTML5 as a future platform for content like flash.
Adobe is being stupid and arrogant with the support and with proper competition all of this can change. Ask Microsoft how is this possible with IE6 and Windows XP.
We are seeing how flash 10.1 has gained video acceleration (HTML5 only speed advantage by the way) and is porting it to smaller devices. Hopefully, they will opensource all free components so no one else can be left without flash.

 

[atomicthumbs]

I like your unbiased poll there

 

[chris_c]

ok guys... I've had my fun as a troll, never done it before but it *is* very entertaining now I know why craigx posts thinly veiled provocative threads... Its fun to see the vitriol that some people spew its like they can't help themselves !

For the record here's my thoughts on flash (for what its worth)

There is almost nothing that cannot be achieved without flash from a web developers perspective.
It has plus points a VM inside a web page is very useful providing you support even and especially the minority platforms.
JavaFX was an attempt at a flash killer
Silverlight was an attempt at a flash and java killer (and an attempt to tie people into window only)
If only because of historical inertia Flash still has its place today - 10 years from now I aint so sure...

At the end of the day no one technology is a platform killer, in the unlikely event there is never a flash solution for the Pandora it will not kill the platform, but at the end of the day the byte code *is* open and already JIT recompilers are appearing that are looking rather good.

Mali do you thing close the thread (dare you! people will find even this contentious)

 

[WizardStan]

ok guys... I've had my fun as a troll, never done it before but it *is* very entertaining now I know why craigx posts thinly veiled provocative threads... Its fun to see the vitriol that some people spew its like they can't help themselves !

Worst. Troll. Ever.

 

[Sphinxter]

ok guys... I've had my fun as a troll, never done it before but it *is* very entertaining now I know why craigx posts thinly veiled provocative threads... Its fun to see the vitriol that some people spew its like they can't help themselves !

Worst. Troll. Ever.

Banworthy. Not so much I mind a good troll it's the lack of grasp on the material. Any Linux, BSD or Solaris user can go to http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight/ and click install right now if they enjoy that sort of thing. Much cash made that happen years ago. "was an attempt", hah, don't ever count out the beast and the game aint over yet.