Flash vs Apple - My Take

There has been much said about Flash on Apple's iPhone/iPad and Flash in general. As a Flex developer, which uses the Flash player, I have a real interest in this.

From personal experience, the Flash experience on Apple products is very fustrating. Is it Adobe's fault? I do think they need to take partial blame but I think the majority of the blame lays with Apple. I will stop just short of saying Apple tries to sabotage the Flash experience on OSX.

This whole argument between Apple and Adobe is about more than just Flash however. This war has been coming for many years. 2-3 years ago Apple, without warning or reason, removed support for Flash in Quicktime. This directly affected a project I had been working on for 2-3 months, all that work, just gone. So like I said, this isn't new, this is just more overt and in everyone's face. I have to think the real motivation is nothing more than money. I don't know what Apple hopes to gain overall. Is Jobs really that concerned about our internet experience?

Why do I use Flex and Flash? Well, I used to use HTML and CSS and Coldfusion. And here is what most average user doesn't understand. When you make a web application with such technologies, I am not talking a video player here, I am talking real web applications. You run into issues when using HTML/CSS and Javascript. How things look and run varies depending on the browser. I used to build basically, not to get overly technical here, 3 different pages depending on the browser (sometimes 2 just for IE, Firefox, Safari). I have introduce Flex to a number of developers who have used Ajax, HTML/CSS, etc and the common theme with using Flex, was how nice it was to make once, deploy everywhere and the experience was the same, didn't matter what the browser was. The hours wasted tweaking applications not built in Flex/Flash, to work and look properly in every browser flavor is staggering. My application was originally built with these other technologies and I spent almost as much time tweaking it to work in IE, Safari, Firefox as I did building it.

If you think Flash is nothing more than playing videos, heres one of my favorite Flash applications, Aviary.

Flex was my savior. I now produce a product 1000 times better. I produce it quicker, with a slicker interface, with more features. To give you an example, my first application took 3-4 years to get to the same level of completeness that my latest application took me a month and a half. Thats why I use Flex/Flash today.

Now for some quick hits:

1. Flash isn't Open. This may be true, depends on how you look at it. Frankly, I don't want the Flash PLAYER to ever be open. I don't want the same situation as we have with browsers today. Do you want 5 different Flash player plugins? Or lets look at a truely open enviroment, Linux. Does anybody have any idea how many Linux flavors there are? So the fact that Adobe decides what the Flash Player does only helps me develop better applications.

2. Flash crashes Macs. I have my application deployed on 40-50 Macs with another 40-50 about to start using my application. The one thing I tell them, don't use Safari. Amazing how the company making the biggest stink about Flash, makes the 1 browser that consistently has problems with Flash (sabotage?). Maybe the issue on the iPhone/iPad isn't Flash, but their browser? Bottomline here, I am sure many of you think Flash kills your computer, but can almost guarantee that 95% of the time, its because of something else, or a combination of things. Computers are finicky beasts at the best of times. OSX isn't immune to issues, just like any other OS. And for those wondering, I use Linux and Windows and support my application on OSX.

3. Flash Ads/Security. Hello? Everyone complaining about this has either just started using the internet or is a complete idiot. I have been building for and using the internet since 1994. ANYTHING that can be abused WILL BE ABUSED. Before flash, animated gifs. Oh and remember the popup craze. Companies made a lot of cash making popup blockers which is now standard in all browsers. Ok, maybe Adobe hasn't reacted quickly enough to block some security issues, but blame Flash for ads? HTML5 won't be your savior here.

4. HTML5 is a Flash killer. Well, HTML5 may kill the Flash video player. Great. Who cares? Only the whiners bashing flash. Flash isn't just a video player. As for killing Flash, well, lets see, Firefox, Safari, Chrome, IE, Opera, who else am I missing, will each render and implement HTML5 differently. HTML5 doesn't mean all browsers are equal that is the problem. That means developers spend hundreds (if not more) of hours to make the average user have the same experience no matter what browser he uses.

I love technology. I am excited for HTML5. I can't wait to see what we get in the next 10 years. But until a technology comes along that does what Flex/Flash does, I will continue to build using those technologies and any other technology that allows me to build better applications that give my clients what they want. Today, there is NO way I could deliver my applications in HTML5/Java/Whatever else. Its not cost effective for me or my clients. Being shut off from the iPhone/iPad is very disappointing and Apple has lost me as a customer as a result, I currently have an iPhone and love iTunes but my new phone is a Droid Incredible.

Anyways, just wanted to give a perspective from little developer that neither company cares about. I don't affect their bottomline in any way. But because of the Internet and these companies, I do make a living.

-David Walsh