In Defense of Adobe Flash
I started using Adobe Flash several years ago, when Flash was still a Macromedia product, website structure was designed exclusively with tables and CSS styling wasn’t a trend yet. Compared to the horrible Java animations that were used at the time and the effects of primitive DHTML, representing the best thing in town those days, Flash was something new and exciting for every webdesigner. It was a revolutionary platform, pushing beyond the boundaries of static HTML and solving, in its own way, the problems of compatibility between different browsers simply with the installation of a plug-in.
Developing with Flash became a fashionable trend and a kind of status symbol for each new generation of web designers. The film and music industry adopted it as a standard platform for bringing high-impact web sites for new movies released in theaters and home pages of artists and bands.
In less than a couple of years Flash helped to radically change the face of the web as we knew it til shortly before and it was a great success.
Ten years have passed since then. Ten years, technologically speaking, correspond to a geological era and a total change in the way everyone sees the world wide web. The popularity of CSS first, then the introduction of various JavaScript frameworks and, more recently, HTML5, have made Flash lose much of its appeal.
If it is true that HTML 5 can currently be seen as an alternative to Flash for streaming video, the same can not be said for the development of highly spectacular websites, rich in effects and advanced animation. That area for now remains an exclusive prerogative of the much discussed Adobe product, that is still very widely used, especially in entertainment product websites.
To me this is enough to justify Flash survival, at least for the near future.
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It’s true, Flash will survive. Flash is important for a lot of industries, as you told. But you forgot the Flash big problem, i named it “The Flashers”.
These “developers” who consist of a people who learned Flash once time, in the past and never learned anything new. These Flashers believe that Flash is the perfect solution for the web and it will never change (only the version of Flash Plugin).
Because these beliefs, there’s a lot of terrible and heavy websites blinking on the web. And, these bunch of Flashers are who sustain the commercial interest of Adobe in Flash, because everyday there’s a lot of websites developed with Flash borning. The great part of these website could be develop with webstandards with the same and, in most of the cases, better results. So with “The Flashers” on the way, i have a question for you: Flash is more positive or negative to evolution of web as a social and information plataform?
I agree with you for the “Flashers”. For your question, I think isn’t the most suitable
platform for that!
Nice point you have here.
At times, Flash feels like the old Java animations. When used carefully and with good skill it can become a nice addition to a web page (though I’m afraid I don’t think it’s a technology I like!)
Looking at the evolution of the social web you have two aspects you probably have to keep in mind:
1) The websites themselves. In this I see no need for flash. It’s a resource draining plug-in, not in line with the speed and computational needs of the users.
2) Games. The majority of time consuming applications on social networks like Facebook are built in Flash. Is it the optimal solution? No. Is it something widely used? Yes. This is it. Zynga though showed a flash-free version of their blockbuster hit during WWDC keynote… this should ring a bell.
well… a lot of the Flash sites I’ve seen out there have been well… Flashy. i.e. very pretty, but not a lot of content.
As for Flash itself, I’ve turned on my activity monitor, and on even my more muscular Core Duo systems, Flash will suck up 50% or more of my processors cycles. Even more on an older G5 mac. And a recent look at the Flash 10.1 beta plug in for Android suggests that the browser will take a 50% or more performance hit.
http://www.electronista.com/articles/10/05/24/faster.android.hurt.specifically.by.flash/
In my own opinion, I think that’s just a trend.
HTML5 will subtitute Flash, I don’t think so. I think that HTML5 and Flash are needed each other. HTML5 does have features that Flash doesn’t have, but Flash also have features that HTML5 doesn’t have.
Sorry for my bad English :-(
Your English is ok, don’t worry :)
The trend stuff is something you have to keep in mind for sure, but there’s something more to it and it’s who’s driving the trend and where.
Flash is not going to vanish in a few months. And HTML5 won’t be a closed specification soon.
We still have some time to evaluate and choose who to support. :)
Lovely, thought-provoking article, thanks :)
I must say, I’m on Adobe’s side, although I love Apple too. Sure, Flash may not be the best at everything, video streaming in particular, but the fact remains that there are millions of developers and millions of Flash sites.
If you imagine the reverse – What if Adobe, when they released CS5, decided only to bring out Windows and Linux versions, because they thought that PCs were better. Mac fans would be rioting.
If Apple want to get rid of Flash, then phase it out slowly. All they’re doing by cutting it completely is just shooting themselves in the foot really – Many people won’t buy the iPad or iPhone because of the lack of Flash.
Whilst I see your point about the so-called “Flashers”, Scavone, it also means that basically anyone can make a site. It might not be good, design-wise or functionality-wise, but the content may be nonetheless, and in the end, the internet is about content.
To me there’s more to it, than just cutting Flash or supporting it. For Apple it’s a whole communication strategy determining what’s going on. They have been bashed for three years for the lack of Flash support and then with iPad announcement, CS5 release and iPhone 4 drawing closer they needed to concentrate on inverting the trend and being heroes in doing so (without further trying to port a working version of Flash).
“We’re pushing forward without Flash. Here comes the iPad, the new iPhone, Safari 5. And while we’re at it please give us some visibility on the media without us spending a single cent” (open letter from Steve Jobs). The resonance of those words has been incredible and shook the ENTIRE community of design. Wasn’t this enough to justify the debate?
And with more companies getting in the trail of Jobs’ position this for sure has become something to think about, consider or re-consider. For everyone. Even if they think Flash or HTML5 are the reason why they’d rather buy a device instead of another one.
Grammar correction: “lose”, not “loose”.
Thanks, correction made :)
OK you talk about some people “The Flashers” and I totally agree with you. What about the people who still write websites with tables? Or how about those who write a website and they don’t validate the code? How about these peoples who write a website that looks good on Firefox and fails in Internet explorer or Safari & Chrome.
You cannot blame a technology because of how good the people that are using it know it.
You should take as an example the things that programmers are building with Flash. For example, I use Flash for the last 5 years. I am using in combination with jQuery, Web Services SOAP, PHP and many other technologies for building advanced web applications and web applications. What I am saying is that if you are a programmer and not a snob, then you will see that Flash has many many many possibilities.
Don’t get me wrong, I started working with HTML 5, CSS3 and jQuery and I see many possibilities. But when someone is saying that it will replace Flash or Flex then he probably doesn’t have a clue of the difference of HTML 5 and Flash. And let’s not forget that HTML 5 on it’s own can’t do much things. You still need Javascript and CSS3.
Flash is indeed a good platform if used in a smart way, but the majority of perceived examples of its use are bloated entertainment website and resource sucking non-SEO friendly pages.
Keep in mind that a technology can win or fail, depending on how the users actually use it (or don’t). Think of some of the latest examples in social networking and how they grew on their own creators (Twitter?).
The design community is now HOT with HTML5/CSS3/JS combo and its possibilities (you can just browse for some of the topics around) while Flash is perceived as the older guy that’s not cool anymore. Add to this you need proprietary software to design or write code for Flash plus a browser side plugin, instead of just notepad (and three accessible languages) and a clean browser install and you get to know why, if the big names in the industry push in this direction, the trend really gets some help.
I’m not saying this is right, wrong or whatever (if you read the discussion you probably know where I stand :)) but to me this is pretty clear.
I liked this sentence from your article:
“The film and music industry adopted it as a standard platform for bringing high-impact web sites for new movies released in theaters and home pages of artists and bands.”
This to me is the perfect description of the Flash site. Unfortunately I’ve found that these are websites you visit once or twice and then never return to again. While the websites you get stuck on, the ones you’ve been visiting for years on end happen to be made in HTML are less razzle dazzle.
I think Flash had it’s time on the web and it’s time to start moving forward. HTML5 might not be there completely, but with the passion of developers that create frameworks and other solutions it’s going to get there very quickly.
At the end of the day an internet where your browser is the only window into your computer is in my opinion much safer and better for everyone. The browser maker is reposnsible for patching flaws quickly and is not dependent on any 3rd party.
Yes Michael, I definitely agree with you that the evolution is leading towards a browser centric approach and the relevance of standards implementation is higher than ever before.
This is the same reason why Firefox and WebKit based browsers are constantly gaining more marketshare. IE is lagging way behind its competitors and the community is answering to this pachydermic slowness in a clear way.
Closing, the same applies here. I’ve found myself moving away from Flash websites after waiting for them to load that 100% or just look at them once only to find the navigation was crazy.
Let’s talk about HTML5 when IE6 die …
It should be dead. Microsoft has stopped supporting it and it was about time.
It should, well… it has to… it’s been a plague to web design standards since its first appearance…
The problem are the big companies still using it. Otherwise I really wouldn’t mind carelessly giving up on it and suggesting the users to upgrade.
I not too un-recently was snuck into a client’s bosses office to rip out his AOL 4 and IE 5 for current versions of IE and Firefox…
Then a day later I got a phone call… “You fixed the website!”
i totally agree whit the positions expressed above, flash is and has been used for sites aiming at generate an “impression”, not sharing information.
that’s why i dont like it, i’m not usually looking up the web to entertain me… (people is made for that)
I just want to comment on a piece of you post when you say that
“That area for now remains an exclusive prerogative of the much discussed Adobe product”
The dominance is not 100% anymore as SilverLight is here to stay too.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t use or need either the two, but it’s wrong to assume Flash as an exclusive way of doing things.
IMHO HTML5 is way more appellative than Flash, but browser compatibility won’t let it be implemented as fast as it should but in my line of business Flash isn’t allowed too so I’ll stick with HTML, CSS & Javascript :)
Pretty good sum up.
Despite the fact that Flash is a difficult and fairly unforgiving environment if you’re not the sort of designer that has both visual design AND programming skills… AS3, what were you THINKING, Adobe? But even as HTM5, CSS3 and Javascript rise in capability, I don’t think that Flash is going away anytime soon. It’s still useful for games and high interactivity and rich media applications, and not everyone is giving up Flash Video either for H.263 and WebM. And seriously, there are still people using AOL 5 and IE6 *cringe*
I’ve even tried to use as much JQuery and Javascript on my sites where I can, but got stuck on something as simple as just playing MP3 files on a site without opening a new page. The JQuery module still relies on a Flash PLAYER widget for cross platform compatibility.
Of course Adobe has about half their engineers staying up late looking for ways to embed Flash everywhere…. perhaps hopefully to force Apple to letting it on the iPad/iPhone… but most certainly to keep Flash relevant and spread it’s footprint. A huge amount of the new functionality of CS5, cross application presentation export, Flex, AIR… all use Flash as the binding codebase and wrapper. And since swallowing Macromedia, Adobe enjoys near monopoly power in Design and Publishing applications, and is also quite strong in Media and Web Development. To be professionally relevant in Design, you pretty much HAVE to have the Adobe Creative Applications.
As for the Apple vs Adobe fighting… for a designer it’s like being twelve yeas old and coming down to breakfast and Mom and Dad are having a howling screaming fight about getting a divorce.
Ouch.