Adobe vs. Apple

I think we all know that Adobe and Apple don’t have the best relationship. I am of course not talking about Premiere, Photoshop or this creepy piece of software called Dreamweaver. I am talking about Flash.

My point of view

I don’t like flash. I recently uninstalled the Flash plugin in my browser. After tweeting this I received some – let’s call them unfriendly – DMs that I have no idea what I’m talking about and that I should just shut up.

Let me give you a short version what I really think of Flash

IT JUST SUCKS

I said I’ll go with the short version. If you want more details read on, if you don’t care skip to the next headline.

Everything Flash does is consuming valuable system resources. I still work with my HP/Compaq NX7000. I have a Pentium M 1.5GHz, 2GB Ram and a Radeon 9200 mobile graphic chip. This notebook works for me. I can do all my work, I can surf the web, work on my projects and do everything else except browsing websites that use Flash.

Okay enough drama. I can, of course, browse pages that use Flash. But my CPU is running at 100%, my battery runs dry and my legs are warming up.

I have only seen one website I find at least a bit useful using Flash and that’s YouTube. Yes I know there is Vimeo and other sites that do exactly the same but let’s just stick with the big one. I can live without YouTube. Yeah, call me crazy but this is no joke. I am still not as 2.0 as I wanted to be and somehow I am thankful that I missed my goals. I don’t feel the pressure to publish new content, to take a vacation from Twitter or to run away from my blog.

Short version as conclusion

I don’t use Flash, I don’t like Flash, I don’t need Flash.

Maybe now some of you understand why I don’t care about iPhones and iPads without Flash.

Mac improvements are coming

You may ask why I write this post and that’s okay. I just hit word 346 and still did nothing beside flaming Flash. There is an article on AppleInsider and I just cannot resist writing a comment that wouldn’t fit in the comments on AppleInsider.

I won’t comment Jobs statement that Adobe is lazy. I know many things I’d call them, lazy is not included.

“If Flash stayed stagnant, it would certainly go away,” he said. “But it’s not going to stay stagnant. We’re going to keep innovating.”

Flash is innovative. Great joke. What’s the next one? Windows is the best OS for every task?

What can Flash do?

• act as a media player for sites like YouTube
• eat up a lot system resources
• crash
• security holes for free
• you can create advertisements using many sound files so you cannot surf the web without muting your speakers
• always require an update when you need fast access to your browser

Yeah Flash is innovative and China is a democracy.

Why did Flash become famous?

There is only one reason why Flash became famous. Well, maybe two, but number two is YouTube and I am sure they would have found another way to deliver videos.

Back in the dark days of the internet there was only one easy way to create interactive content. Flash. Everyone started using it, many people were not happy but there were no viable alternatives.

Some competitors appeared but they had no chance. Requiring additional addons, new development environments and a total new syntax without giving something back, no overvalue, is no way to attract developers.

Why Apple is doing it right

Apple is going for HTML5. With HTML5 there is no need for Flash if you want to provide videos for your users. And as I just said, this is the only reasons why we still see Flash on websites (okay maybe also because some people still didn’t get that Flash sucks and that there is no reason using it). Webdesigners understood that using standards is a good idea. And now they’ll get a alternative that will work on standard compliant browsers. What do you think they’ll do?

Many users are not happy about Apples decision. I can understand this. I don know what sites they are visiting but if they think they need Flash I can understand it.

But thinking about future Apple is doing it right. They don’t waste resources on a technology that should be dead for at least 5 years now. They work on a new technology that will bring benefits for everyone using it. They focus on standards that can be used by everyone.

That’s what I call innovative.