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Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

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Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#41
post #38
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Video on mobile browsers should launch a video player like YouTube does when you follow a link their site. But also there should exist an attribute to avoid this for some cases.

YouTube isn't the only Flash video player though. What if you click a Vimeo link? What about a link on the BBC? It would be ideal if there were a good native solution for all videos, but I can imagine this to be quite a hard problem.

I said "a video player" meaning a generic one. like when you click an flv link or rtsp, that launches the stock video app in my phone (ics)

Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#42

Hopefully the absence of Flash on both major mobile platforms will help speed its demise on non-mobile platforms as well. On the other hand, this news might just precede another announcement from Google saying "don't worry, Adobe doesn't support it anymore, but we do", just as they did for Flash on Linux.

What is your problem with flash, really? I honestly can't think of a better platform for web games (and it's one of the easiest way to develop 2d games, regardless of web or not).

The only thing I can think of is people who don't care about games, in that case flash does seem like an annoyance more than anything (we can do without flash restaurant sites or punch the monkey banners, but i suspect html5/js will just take its place there).

But really, it's a great game development platform and mostly runs really well on windows and these days well enough on linux & mac (assuming the programmer isn't doing something dumb like a busy waiting loop, which would suck resources regardless of platform).

haxe+flash runtime is my favorite environment for developing (and playing) 2d games by a long shot, so I am always a bit puzzled by all the flack it's getting.

Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#43
post #42

Hopefully the absence of Flash on both major mobile platforms will help speed its demise on non-mobile platforms as well. On the other hand, this news might just precede another announcement from Google saying "don't worry, Adobe doesn't support it anymore, but we do", just as they did for Flash on Linux.

What is your problem with flash, really? I honestly can't think of a better platform for web games (and it's one of the easiest way to develop 2d games, regardless of web or not). The only thing I can think of is people who don't care about games, in that case flash does seem like an annoyance more than anything (we can do without flash restaurant sites or punch the monkey banners, but i suspect html5/js will just ta…

I think the problem isnt flash itself but the fact that it's proprietary. This is the reason we have such news in the first place. If adobe drops support, it's dead. No such thing with open stuff. No one entity has all the control. This is where html5 upper leg, no one can suddenly start charging you for using it or dictate it's development.

Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#44
post #11

It's interesting how hard they are pushing this; there is still quite a lot of Flash on the web ... at least most smaller sites hosting / streaming video seem to still rely on it. I actually would have thought they could make a decent bit of revenue just by offering it to OEMs as a selling point. Perhaps they see even more revenue by forcing all the recalcitrant sites still using Flash to buy Adobe's tools as the eas…

If things go like they did in the past, 4.1 being widely adopted is years away. I don’t see this having much if any impact on anything right now.

Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#45
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every Gingerbread and up phone has support for WebM.

Hardware support?

Newer SOC's have hardware support for it.

OMAP4470 supports it in hardware (so galaxy nexus like phones).

OMAP54XX supports it in hardware.

Tegra 3 supports it in hardware.

So just in time for this development ;)

Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#46
Seriously, Flash just needs to die and the sooner the better. It's horrible. I'm not even talking programming here (I know nothing about Flash programming). It's a horrible user experience.

One of the things I'm thankful to Apple for is in them taking a stand against this horrible experience and hastening its demise. Lack of Flash on iOS is a feature.

Flash isn't horrible per se. It's horrible because Adobe is completely incompetent in making it run stably and on platforms other than Windows (and even there it's a stretch). Were they competent and the Flash experience just worked, I'd be fine with it.

The suckiness of Flash is what's driving the adoption of HTML5/JS because, let's face it, HTML5/JS isn't exactly a mature platform yet.

I just wish there was a way I could run a browser with Flash even installed without being bugged by "You're missing plugins. Would you like to install them?" Flashblock, Click-to-Flash and the like help but I'd rather not have the software installed at all.

It makes me sad that Chrome bundles Flash and can't have it conveniently extracted either.

To be fair, Apple didn't kill Flash (much as I'd like to give them credit for it). Adobe did.

Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#47
post #46

Seriously, Flash just needs to die and the sooner the better. It's horrible. I'm not even talking programming here (I know nothing about Flash programming). It's a horrible user experience . One of the things I'm thankful to Apple for is in them taking a stand against this horrible experience and hastening its demise. Lack of Flash on iOS is a feature . Flash isn't horrible per se . It's horrible because Adobe is com…

So much hate. The worst side of HN always comes out when Flash comes up.

Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#48
post #42

Hopefully the absence of Flash on both major mobile platforms will help speed its demise on non-mobile platforms as well. On the other hand, this news might just precede another announcement from Google saying "don't worry, Adobe doesn't support it anymore, but we do", just as they did for Flash on Linux.

What is your problem with flash, really? I honestly can't think of a better platform for web games (and it's one of the easiest way to develop 2d games, regardless of web or not). The only thing I can think of is people who don't care about games, in that case flash does seem like an annoyance more than anything (we can do without flash restaurant sites or punch the monkey banners, but i suspect html5/js will just ta…

What's the problem with Flash?

1. Ceaselessly the biggest security hole on desktop computers.

2. Proprietary.

3. The need to install it in the first place and keep updating it. (And, no, I don't want it to auto-update.)

4. Can't cut and paste text from it. It's ridiculous to have to manually write down an address or phone number from a Flash-based site.

5. Search engines don't properly index it.

6. A Flash developer can hold you hostage by not giving you the "source" (the FLA master file).

7. It's allegedly a major source of browser crashes (or so I've read though I can't prove this).

8. It's slow. A website is insanely bloated to use Flash when text and pictures could have communicated the same information.

9. It imposes DRM even when the content owner didn't intend it. Think of all the subterfuge and trickery necessary to download a Flash video even when the website owner wouldn't have minded.

Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#49
post #48
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your problem with flash, really? I honestly can't think of a better platform for web games (and it's one of the easiest way to develop 2d games, regardless of web or not). The only thing I can think of is people who don't care about games, in that case flash does seem like an annoyance more than anything (we can do without flash restaurant sites or punch the monkey banners, but i suspect html5/js will just ta…

What's the problem with Flash? 1. Ceaselessly the biggest security hole on desktop computers. 2. Proprietary. 3. The need to install it in the first place and keep updating it. (And, no, I don't want it to auto-update.) 4. Can't cut and paste text from it. It's ridiculous to have to manually write down an address or phone number from a Flash-based site. 5. Search engines don't properly index it. 6. A Flash developer…

You should leave #6 out of your list. Your argument would be much more compelling for it. (Compilation/obfuscation is the norm, not the exception.)

Re: Adobe confirms it won't support Flash on Android 4.1

#50
post #48
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is your problem with flash, really? I honestly can't think of a better platform for web games (and it's one of the easiest way to develop 2d games, regardless of web or not). The only thing I can think of is people who don't care about games, in that case flash does seem like an annoyance more than anything (we can do without flash restaurant sites or punch the monkey banners, but i suspect html5/js will just ta…

What's the problem with Flash? 1. Ceaselessly the biggest security hole on desktop computers. 2. Proprietary. 3. The need to install it in the first place and keep updating it. (And, no, I don't want it to auto-update.) 4. Can't cut and paste text from it. It's ridiculous to have to manually write down an address or phone number from a Flash-based site. 5. Search engines don't properly index it. 6. A Flash developer…

As I said I have no love for flash for websites, I am only talking about flash as platform for web-games.
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