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What Apple has done is akin to Adobe restricting PDF viewing permissions to Adobe Reader/Acrobat programs only, and blocking future PDF document versions from opening in "Preview" or any other non-Adobe app.

Except that Adobe can't do that. PDF was officially released as an open standard on July 1, 2008. Adobe doesn't control the PDF format any more.
 
It may die on Mac fairly quickly -- and we'd all be fine with that -- but the non-Mac crowd (which is fairly significant eh?) will keep it alive. If we could get more people moved over to :apple: we could kill MS and Adobe. ;)
Actually, they won't. Flash is only really preferred by developers who don't know anything else. Users only tolerate it because they think there aren't alternatives, or because they're unaware of it — they're just playing a video. With every iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, and even Mac sold, Flash loses market share. What's more, it loses market share with most other phones sold too!

Combined with the rapid development (see links) that Apple's decision has brought to HTML 5 it's hard to see Flash remaining relevant for more than a couple more years. Die? No, but it will become an niche player.

http://www.craftymind.com/2010/04/20/blowing-up-html5-video-and-mapping-it-into-3d-space/

http://www.kesiev.com/akihabara/

http://jilion.com/sublime/video

This is all good news. Flash is more than just bloatware, it's also a threat to the iPhone and the Android ecosystems as any write once deliver to all meta-platform would be. If Adobe were to get a significant percentage of iPhone and Android apps done through their system then they would have control over both. Don't be surprised if Google follows Apple's lead and takes steps to keep Flash out of Android. They may not ban it, but they'll probably do all they can to encourage HTML5 development instead of it.
 
Most of you don't seem to realize how negative this is.

Apple is making some big enemies lately, and they might end up regretting it. If the entire Creative Suite was discontinued for the Mac, do you think Mac-based CS users would switch to an alternative program suite, or switch to an alternative platform?

As a graphic designer/photographer, I can tell you in no uncertain terms that there is no workable alternative to the current indesign/photoshop/illustrator/flash/dreamweaver/acrobat workflow.

What Apple has done is akin to Adobe restricting PDF viewing permissions to Adobe Reader/Acrobat programs only, and blocking future PDF document versions from opening in "Preview" or any other non-Adobe app.

Apple seems to think that the momentum is on their side, but they don't realize how fickle people can be. Google could easily disable maps on all apple products, disable youtube on iphone, disable gmail access from apple products, and whatever else they have that people rely on, and believe me, if that happened, I would leave Apple before I left Google. I will not ever change my email address again if I can help it. There is no viable alternative to the Adobe Creative Suite. If Apple wants to ruin that relationship, and users are left to pick between their career or their computer OS, I think that's a game Apple will lose. Do you realize how many Macs are sold into college and high school campuses every year because of the Creative Suite alone?

^ This. As a fellow graphic designer I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm an Apple fan for sure, but the moment Apple starts affecting how I make my living and support my family is the moment I say good-bye. I wouldn't even need to think about it.
 
It may die on Mac fairly quickly -- and we'd all be fine with that -- but the non-Mac crowd (which is fairly significant eh?) will keep it alive. If we could get more people moved over to :apple: we could kill MS and Adobe. ;)

Adobe won't be killed...remember that they do have more than just Flash under their belt. For the sake of argument, if Flash would 'die'. They probably will create a new program for developing for the new content. They have been around for what, 20 years now? They aren't going anywhere...

Now as for MS, it'd be nice...but they will stay too... :(
 
Apple is making some big enemies lately, and they might end up regretting it. If the entire Creative Suite was discontinued for the Mac, do you think Mac-based CS users would switch to an alternative program suite, or switch to an alternative platform?

As a graphic designer/photographer, I can tell you in no uncertain terms that there is no workable alternative to the current indesign/photoshop/illustrator/flash/dreamweaver/acrobat workflow.

What Apple has done is akin to Adobe restricting PDF viewing permissions to Adobe Reader/Acrobat programs only, and blocking future PDF document versions from opening in "Preview" or any other non-Adobe app.

This. As a fellow graphic designer I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm an Apple fan for sure, but the moment Apple starts affecting how I make my living and support my family is the moment I say good-bye. I wouldn't even need to think about it.

I throw my hat in for these comments as a designer.

That is EXACTLY what bothers me. If Apple continues down this path, Adobe has the cards to play the hurt. They could continue to develop new features and technology on the Windows platform and leave Apple users with overpriced, feature lacking software. As much as I loathe doing CS work on the PC, I would HAVE to if Adobe stopped or interrupted development.

The past couple of software cycles for CS have gotten the UI very familiar and similar, especially with transitions in both Windows and Mac OS X. If I transition to from Aperture to Lightroom, I may go all the way and do it on Windows. I want to be guaranteed support, and this activity makes me, the user, nervous.
 
Apple is not thinking about us users. They are being selfish and tyrant. Not cool... :mad:

Actually Apple is doing this FOR their customers, not against. Adobe has screwed Apple's customers over the years way too many times. They keep making Mac versions of their productivity suite almost 2 years after the Windows version was released. Adobe has even avoided Mac users by skipping certain versions of their software and just made it Windows only. Some of Adobe's software is only made for Windows. Finally Flash runs horribly on the Mac and there's no reason for it, especially on Snow Leopard. Adobe is screwing Apple's customers and Apple won't stand for it. Thanks to open standards like HTML5 we don't have to be slave to Adobe Flash and hopefully other pieces of Adobe's software can finally be avoided. I'm just sick of Adobe left right and sideways.
I find your post to be quite alarming being a Mac user.
 
I personally never visit any flash sites except youtube, which is switching over to HTML5. I know just by reading multiple threads about flash that most of the mac community could care less about not having flash and believes it to be outdated and buggy. Personally, after youtube goes full html5 i will not miss it.
 
You're right, we should go back to the 90's and use tables for layout and font tags instead of CSS. Kidding. Development happens either way. The Internet, like all development platforms will continue to evolve. We are faced with a choice right now, evolve with Flash and fragment the internet, or evolve to more open standards. Apple is throwing their weight behind open standards. Adobe is screaming and yelling because they want to control the Internet. Reminds me of Active X, for that reason alone I support Apple and open standards.

Well I'm 100% with you on that one. I am happy that Apple and others are putting their weight behind open standards but i'd rather they side with Mozilla and adopt an open video format too.

I'm sure things will pan out fine in the end and if we're left with an internet where any device can connect without jumping through hoops, then that will be all the better.
 
I think that anyone who has a strict opinion about whether Flash or HTML5 knows nothing about either platform. Here's why: they're different and they both have strengths and weaknesses. I think HTML5 will be a great way to replace Flash videos and Flash websites, but Flash will stay the best way to play animations and games on the web. Remember, most people use Windows, and on Windows, Flash runs very well. I have no doubt HTML5 will run even better, but Microsoft is slow at adopting it in Internet Explorer (still the world's most popular and worst browser). So considering that Macs and iPhones are a minority of devices that use the internet compared to PCs, saying that Flash will "die" or completely disappear from the internet is stupid.

Flash is obviously more CPU hungry than HTML5, so it's a waste to use Flash for simple tasks such as playing videos and displaying adverts. HTML5 can do all that without hurting slower computers. On the other hand, Flash is able to do very complex games for example, something that is CPU hungry anyway.

Remember when everything was about animated GIFs? Every website was full of them (mostly adverts). There is nothing Flash can't do that animated GIFs can do, but GIFs still exist on the internet. On the other hand, HTML5 can't do absolutely everything Flash can do, so I don't see why 100% of Flash would disappear from the internet.

I personally don't really care what happens, I'm lucky enough to say that I own a powerful MacBook Pro and it has no problems with either Flash or HTML5.
 
That is EXACTLY what bothers me. If Apple continues down this path, Adobe has the cards to play the hurt. They could continue to develop new features and technology on the Windows platform and leave Apple users with overpriced, feature lacking software. As much as I loathe doing CS work on the PC, I would HAVE to if Adobe stopped or interrupted development.

The past couple of software cycles for CS have gotten the UI very familiar and similar, especially with transitions in both Windows and Mac OS X. If I transition to from Aperture to Lightroom, I may go all the way and do it on Windows. I want to be guaranteed support, and this activity makes me, the user, nervous.

Apple and the rest of us are moving on. The more Adobe and old shiftless-Shantanu drag their feet with Mac products, the more incentive there is for other more enterprising developers to come up with alternatives (and the more incentive for Apple to move some of its $40 billion to help them.)

Dollars-to-donuts Apple already has alternatives in development. They have the talent and the resources for it. Look what they did to Aperture and FCP. No problem.
 
Where is your evidence of that? Some people have "voted" for no flash because they just buy whatever new tech that Apple puts out. Remember that developers are also users. If the devs are unhappy, they will slow production and Apple will lose popularity. It's like a musical that takes place without a stage crew, sound crew, or lighting crew.

Read the Apple financial report. iPhone is killing other smartphones. iPod Touch is widely popular. iPad selling well. There are more iPhones in the wild than there were Apple Zealots before the iPhone was released. I was very much anti-Apple years ago. I love my iPhone, and I love OS X. The new wave of Zealots aren't being brought in by marketing but by functional well built devices.
 
More Flash Hate

I'm fed up of reading all these uninformed opinions about why Flash is bad - I've been using Flash for over 10 years primarily to produce eLearning materials and it is the best solution available for this.

Flash is not just video content.

And you shouldn't condemn solutions based on how some people use them - ie just because you don't like Flash adverts doesn't make all Flash bad.
 
I throw my hat in for these comments as a designer.

That is EXACTLY what bothers me. If Apple continues down this path, Adobe has the cards to play the hurt. They could continue to develop new features and technology on the Windows platform and leave Apple users with overpriced, feature lacking software. As much as I loathe doing CS work on the PC, I would HAVE to if Adobe stopped or interrupted development.
You're missing the point here. Adobe is screwing you, not Apple. As for Adobe dropping CS on the Mac, that would mean the end of Adobe. Their value would drop so low that Apple could snap them up, drop all the PC versions of their software making them Mac only, and do it all with petty cash!
 
Actually Apple is doing this FOR their customers, not against. Adobe has screwed Apple's customers over the years way too many times. They keep making Mac versions of their productivity suite almost 2 years after the Windows version was released. Adobe has even avoided Mac users by skipping certain versions of their software and just made it Windows only. Some of Adobe's software is only made for Windows. Adobe is screwing Apple's customers and Apple won't stand for it. Thanks to open standards like HTML5 we don't have to be slave to Adobe Flash and hopefully other pieces of Adobe's software can finally be avoided. I'm just sick of Adobe left right and sideways.
I find your post to be quite alarming being a Mac user.

How has Adobe 'screwed' OS X users? How is the productivity suite two years behind? If you are referring to the 32-64 bit difference, then blame Apple. Apple promised, then pulled, support for 64-bit Carbon, forcing Adobe to wait until a Cocoa written suite could be developed (e.g. CS5).
 
Wrong. If developers make them in HTML5, then it'll work on more platforms.

Last I checked apps were not made in HTML5. I think you are one of those people that still misses the point of what Flash builder it. Hint, it has nothing to do with Flash on the web in this context.
 
I am not a Unity expert, but my cursory examination leads me to believe that you code your Unity game in C# and it compiles using Mono libraries (open port of .net). It then creates a Xcode project linking these binaries.

That clearly runs afoul of the new license agreement as well, so it will be interesting to watch what happens.

More comments like these please.

I would really like to understand how the Flash -> iPhone App creator works.

I've seen many comments about there being a "black box" inside these (Flash -> iPhone) apps that interprets non-native code. I thought this was Apple's objection to this kind of code-compilation.

Expert comments in this area would greatly benefit the community and probably limit the mud-slinging going on.
 
How has Adobe 'screwed' OS X users? How is the productivity suite two years behind? If you are referring to the 32-64 bit difference, then blame Apple. Apple promised, then pulled, support for 64-bit Carbon, forcing Adobe to wait until a Cocoa written suite could be developed (e.g. CS5).

64- bit flash doesn't exist for windows either..
 
On the other hand, HTML5 can't do absolutely everything Flash can do, so I don't see why 100% of Flash would disappear from the internet.

No it won't disappear, but what you will see is that there will be no new web pages designed with flash, and anyone wanting to target the mobile space will provide alternatives for pre-existing flash.

The rhetoric about flash being on 95% of the internet is silly, since most of if is annoying flash advertising. Leave out Adverts and Video and it is probably 5% and shrinking.

I browse with beta Chrome browser that lets you turn off plug-ins (and white list some pages for plug ins). Browsing this way means absolutely no flash, yet my white list only has 9 entries to allow plug ins like flash.

When you surf without flash enabled, most of the better sites that still use flash realize you don't have it and serve you the non flash page for a much better experience.

BTW what is exactly that Flash can do that HTML 5 can't? Annoy people, crash browsers?
 
why would flash die? I'm so tired of that argument. Flash is going
to be able to export to HTML-5. Do you seriously expect a company
like Adobe to just fall over and die instead of adjust to market conditions.

I think not.

I think he meant flash as in the format apposed to the program.
 
Adobe should have focused more on the Mac instead of foolishly waiting for the platform to die and then, when it didn't drop dead as they hoped, treating Mac users as second-class citizens while pimping inferior Windows PCs.


Android and the rest of the me-too also-rans are perfect for Adobe.
 
By not allowing Flash developers to port to Objective-C for the App Store discourages Flash development in the first place.

Both lack of the mobile Flash plug-in or the inability to port from Flash for mobile devices (or at least the predominant smartphone platform) reduces the viability of Flash's future as a development environment.

Flash is in the rear view mirror now.

As much as I hate to admit it, I have to agree. Adobe didn't stay nimble. If you take out the iPhone export from Flash CS5, there is no compelling reason to upgrade to Flash CS5 besides the new text engine, which should have been implemented long ago.

Things like Corona allow flash developers to leverage their scripting knowledge into a product that exports Apple friendly files. It's time for Adobe to adapt or watch Flash die.

cwt1nospam said:
Combined with the rapid development (see links) that Apple's decision has brought to HTML 5 it's hard to see Flash remaining relevant for more than a couple more years. Die? No, but it will become an niche player.

http://www.craftymind.com/2010/04/20...into-3d-space/

http://www.kesiev.com/akihabara/

http://jilion.com/sublime/video

I agree there- video should be simpler on the web. A quick HTML tag and you're done is how it should be. And that akihabara 8-bit game development library is amazingly cool!

cwt1nospam said:
This is all good news. Flash is more than just bloatware, it's also a threat to the iPhone and the Android ecosystems as any write once deliver to all meta-platform would be. If Adobe were to get a significant percentage of iPhone and Android apps done through their system then they would have control over both. Don't be surprised if Google follows Apple's lead and takes steps to keep Flash out of Android. They may not ban it, but they'll probably do all they can to encourage HTML5 development instead of it.

HTML5 isn't what people use to make apps. If the Flash mobile app compiler (not the flash plugin) is a threat to iPhone and Android - any middleware with "write once deliver everywhere" capabilities is also a threat. Some of the best iPhone development environments are going cross platform right now. Unity, Corona, etc.
 
How the hell is HTML5 being brought up with title specifically says "Flash to iPhone compiler"????? What are you guys even talking about??:confused:
 
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