Windows 8 Metro browsing will not support Flash, Adobe counters with AIR

By Tom Warren, on 17th Sep 11 12:36 pm with 55 Comments

Adobe Flash not available in Windows 8 Metro browser

Microsoft revealed this week that Internet Explorer 10 Metro will not support browser based plug-ins.

“For the web to move forward and for consumers to get the most out of touch-first browsing, the Metro style browser in Windows 8 is as HTML5-only as possible, and plug-in free,” revealed Internet Explorer chief Dean Hachamovitch, in a blog post earlier this week. Microsoft is removing the ability to use plug-ins on the Metro style IE version of Windows 8 to improve security, reliability and battery life for end users. “Plug-ins were important early on in the web’s history,” admits Hachamovitch. “The web has come a long way since then with HTML5.”

Microsoft feels that the web is progressing well with HTML5 towards a plug-in free experience. Google recently launched HTML5 YouTube for mobile devices and 62% of the top 97,000 sites worldwide currently use HTML5 video when Adobe Flash isn’t available. Windows 8 will still support plug-in browsing using the standard version of Internet Explorer outside of the Metro interface.

Adobe was quick to respond to Microsoft’s removal. “We expect Windows desktop to be extremely popular for years to come and that it will support Flash just fine,” said Danny Winokur, Adobe’s platform general manager, in a blog post on Wednesday. Adobe hopes to bring flash content to the Metro interface using the company’s AIR product. “We expect Flash based apps will come to Metro via Adobe AIR, much the way they are on Android, iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS today,” said Winokur. Adobe also revealed they are working closely with Microsoft, Google and Apple to drive innovation in HTML5. “We are excited about the innovation and opportunities that are available to our customers and Adobe as the web and platforms evolve across devices, including Windows 8 and Metro,” added Winokur.

  • http://twitter.com/JackWilkins0n Jack Wilkinson

    fair enough to be honest

  • http://openid.tomservo.eu/ Tom Servo

    Can’t wait for the million voices of web ad agencies complaining about them being fucked in the ass by this. Re: annoying animated and semi-interactive flash ads, plus those that overlay half your page when starting.

    OTOH, no adblock, except by running some sort of local proxy server.

    • ZipZapRap

      Yep. The biggest and most under-reported problem with HTML5… you won’t be able to block unwanted ads without blocking bunches of servers.. which might block legitimate stuff as well.

    • Anonymous

      The lack of adblockers won’t be much of an issue if Metro IE provides users with a way to set tracking protection lists.

  • CIGraphics

    Flash just DIE already !!!!

  • Joel Job

    And Silverlight, you gonna block that as well ?

    • Jinge

      Silverlight is not a technology for the future of the public WEB (intra/extranet for companies only maybe). The main reason is because of the diversity of mobiles systems, which are more and more used to surf. 2nd is the non-resources-optimization, and as there is less and less desktop use, more laptops/mobiles, it is quite critical. And following the example of IE6, we must get rid of old  and outdated technologies to go forward. 
      Even if it is quite radical, and alternative browsers may take advantage of that choice if they don’t follow.

  • The Tribe Is Dead

    Build confirmed what many of us feared: that Microsoft has
    lost its way, to an embarrassing degree; that Windows 8 is going to ‘epic fail’
    to a degree that makes Vista successful by comparison; that Silverlight is
    dead, primarily because Microsoft was never actually interested in
    cross-platform capabilities, as they don’t sell more copies of Windows and
    Office; that IE10 is little more than a refurbished IE6 and that what Redmond’s
    really, really counting on, is that most developers will further shift in the
    direction of native application development because the alternative, embracing
    HTML5 and JavaScript for ‘reach’ would so badly suck (see, they know that it
    will big-time suck and they’re glad – it suits their ultimate intent, pushing
    developers back into native application development – Apple and Google both
    counting on the same).

    I feel sad, of course, for really good guys like Pete Brown,
    Dan Wahlin, Jeremy Likeness and John Papa, to name a few, all who’ve been
    screwed over by the clowns now driving Microsoft into the ground, yet have
    little choice but to remain the ever-smiling and optimistic mouthpiece and
    apologist for Caligula’s regime in Redmond, sweating blood over explaining why
    all of this sh*tstorm is a tremendously good thing.  Poor Pete and Jeremy are still prepping the
    release of books associated with Silverlight 5, what have now become technical
    writing’s ‘direct-to-DVD’ equivalent, books that, if still published, will go
    immediately on the discount rack and worse yet, Pete’s now left hoping he’s
    enough credibility left (by no fault of his own) to sell a few copies of what’s
    called, achingly enough, ‘Windows 8 XAML in Action’.

    But the saddest part of all is what Microsoft truly failed
    to learn from Apple – that what matters more, in today’s increasingly
    competitive world, is passion, the creation of what Seth Godin calls, ‘The
    Tribe’.  As a technologist, I’m in no way
    a fan of Apple, for they suck from that perspective, but there’s no denying
    that they’ve succeeded at what really matters most: igniting passion, creating
    a following, and brilliantly nurturing a ‘tribe’ that has no problem – that is,
    in fact, eager – to pay twice as much for nicely packaged, yet mediocre
    technology.

    Why’s that sad?  If
    Objective-C had this week been declared DBIT (dead-before-its-time), would
    there have been widespread heartbreak and outrage among developers?  No.  If
    HTML5/ JavaScript had been declared DBIT? 
    Absolutely not, there’d have been much rejoicing in the streets.  If someone had been truly honest, quite some time
    ago, declaring WPF DBIT?  No.  But Silverlight?  Silverlight was different in a way that
    Microsoft catastrophically failed to realize because it got lost in the weeds,
    wetting its pants over iPad sales and thereafter missing the whole point – the
    brilliance associated with creating and thereafter nurturing a ‘tribe’.

    Never before – and never again, I suspect – had Microsoft
    created something for which there was an actual ‘tribe’, a group so
    passionately devoted to one of their technological endeavors so as to be
    frightened, angry and heartbroken.  In
    failing to see and fully appreciate what a tremendously powerful – and entirely
    rare – asset such passion can be in today’s world, threw it to the side.  No nurturing of the tribe, no attempt to
    channel that passion into something even greater and even more powerful – no,
    just the opposite.  Because they so completely
    miss the point, those of the tribe have been ridiculed, berated, treated with
    condescension, mislead, insulted by an extended period of the truth being
    denied by silence out of Redmond – in summary, failing to appreciate what
    they’d so masterfully created, this Silverlight tribe, passionate about
    Redmond’s best effort, now and forever, were thrown aside  – heartbroken and dispirited, outcasts left
    to wander the wasteland, laughed at for a level of passion that every
    government and nearly every other company in the world would pay any price -
    except – and this is most tragic of all, passion is not something one can buy,
    not even with a free Samsung tablet…

    Everyone in my family has been forever clamoring for an
    iPhone and either an iPad or Android tablet. “No”, I said, “Wait, because the
    Windows 8 tablet is coming and it will be so much better”.  What an idiot, but unlike so many in Redmond,
    I’m man enough to admit I was wrong. 
    Seeing what took place this week, this clown show extraordinaire, I sat
    at the dinner table and admitted just that – I was wrong – and so today, by
    Microsoft’s own hand, we’ll be shopping, choosing from products associated with
    Apple and Google. 

    And so it goes…

    Oh, and one last thing, one might also say that I’ve long
    since been a member of Pete Brown’s well-deserved tribe of his own, but with
    all that’s gone down this week, there’s was only one book I’ve ordered from
    Amazon, bringing a whole new meaning to, “read ‘em and weep”:

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1430238585/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&tag=realworlsofta-20&link_code=as3&camp=211189&creative=373489&creativeASIN=1430238585

    • http://www.about.me/AngeloGopaul Eingoluq

      dude…wtf?

    • Anonymous

      tldr

    • Joel Job

      Sh!t, I really hope your word don’t become true. But yes, I am so dissapointed with the neglect that MS is showing towards the best ever dev platform designed by them : Silverlight. ScottGu needs to open his mouth and account for all the good work done by it.

    • Ostanciaux

      I don’t agree. I think WPF is the best dev platform. Silverlight and Flash were made to do what html 4 was not able to do in a easier way than with ASP or PHP. With html 5, all of these technologies become obsolete for web programming. But be assured that Silverlight and Flash are not dead anyway…

    • Dan

      tldr: OP is a weirdo.

    • Guest

      Did you ever coded in Objective C? I think no. Because if you would, you would know that this think looks like it didn’t change since 1984.

    • Tom

      Even C++ has evolved since then, for crying out loud.

    • Seth_p

      Well I’ve written several applications in ObjC with Cocoa framework and I know what you’re talking about. The tools available in regards to richness isn’t great. Though ObjC is a subset of C; the language references message-response code so it feels “old”. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a powerful language but give me .NET any day! My productivity is off the chart.. and I’m saying the tools in Visual Studio are rock solid. My large projects draaaag compared to XCode solutions :- 

    • Dee

      I know how you feel about Silverlight, but at least you can use your XAML and C# knowledge with W8in 8′s WinRT. I’m fine with that.

      What I don’t understand is that I can’t use XNA to create (Metro) games in Win8. FAIL. Today, I can use XNA to create games for WP7, Win7 and even XBox.. but no XNA under Metro? How stupid is that?

    • http://twitter.com/OldCongress Gamer

      isheep fail

    • JustPassingThru

      Silverlight ISN’T DEAD and ISN’T GOING TO DIE in WIN8. It’ll still run on the desktop IE10 for Windows 8.. Just not for the Start screen Metro – IE10, I can’t understand what you’re so depressed about. You may not be able to create Metro Apps from Silverlight directly but you can use your skills (XAML + C#) in creating a Metro App…, Apps you or any company that totally have made web apps entirely from Silverlight is 100% going to run on IE10 desktop mode, so what’s the problem in there? No offense, but you may be taking the whole thing out of proper perspective.

    • Dee

      Here’s the problem: no Silverlight 6. So, yes, it is dead.

    • Seth_p

      @Dee, uhm Silverlight 5 just hit RC for developers. Also agree, Silverlight 5 won’t die (anytime soon). We will still be using such RIA for it’s rich DRM, concurrency, rich 3D API’s and so forth. 

      If they wanted to kill Silverlight tomorrow (hypothetical), developers like myself aren’t going to require a whole new learning curve. They’ll have C#/VB and XAML from Silverlight. Hell, Silverlight is just a subset of WPF. So, what devs learn now carries forth. Weee!! Oh and shout out to WinRT!! lol

    • JustPassingThru

      Agree with you on that. They have the knowledge and skills for XAML and C#, they are already armed for Metro Apps development.. A few modification of codes and your Silverlight app is going to be a Metro App. If that Silverlight app is used by a company, then that won’t be a problem either, as a simple desktop view switch of desktop-IE10 then you’re off to go! Companies may even restrict that Metro-IE10 for all we know for their employees’ productivity issues.

    • Dee

      “.. A few modification of codes and your Silverlight app is going to be a Metro App.”

      Oh please! They modified some simple SL2 demo “application” and you think that’s it?

      First of all, any complex SL app has UI that so not Metro. “A few modification of codes..”? Yeah, right.

      I agree that at least we get to keep our XAML knowledge.

    • Dee

      Silverlight 5 is new VB 6. Yeah, you can still run VB6 apps on Windows, but was anybody doing any new programming in VB6 in.. say 2005? Not really.

    • AlsoPassingThru

      Spend some time reading through the following and many of the other posts of the recent past, all from the site of a former Silverlight product manager who remains extremely well connected within Microsoft:

      http://www.riagenic.com/archives/705/comment-page-1

    • JustPassingThru

      “  I think the things that we demonstrated this week, I’m really excited for developers. For Silverlight developers, like Steven [Sinofsky] showed in his keynote, the ability to extend XAML to new scenarios, and being able to take advantage of some of that richness and deep integration inside Windows – that’s a huge opportunity for every Silverlight developer out there, and for every .NET developer. I’m not worried at all about that. And I think in the same way that you saw XAML work great on [Windows] Phone and enable a whole new market and a whole new set of opportunities for developers, I think Windows 8, by its very nature having hundreds and hundreds of millions in installed base, relatively quickly from the date it ships, is going to open up worlds of opportunity for XAML developers. I think that’s all good news, and I’m pretty bullish on that.” – Scott Guthrie

      link: http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2011/09/build-2011-microsofts-scott-gu.php

      SIlverlight isn’t really going to die, because its most important aspects such as XAML and C# are present, it would just be really different for creating Metro Apps, but definitely still going to run in desktop mode. If plugins are enabled in Metro-IE10, then you’ll have Java, Flash, and etc. also running inside it, then it’ll ruin the experience and possibly bog down our Start screen. Silverlight developers are so armed for creating Metro Apps, it’s like you can program it even w/o the product yet being actually released… And as a plus, if legacy applications are still going to run, what more for Silverlight.

    • http://www.facebook.com/halfares Husain Alfares

      wth,, ur comment is longer than the article!!

    • Ostanciaux

      What’s the problem ? If you know Silverlight, you know XAML and C# (or even VB), so you are able to make metro (or even again WinRT) apps. Furthermore, if you would have tried a Windows Phone 7, you wouldn’t wait for Windows 8 to recommend not to buy an iPhone. So I think you’re a troll in disguise and you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not sure you even tried Windows 8 Developper Preview…

  • Jinge

    I think the main reason for that is really to improve reliability, They want a good image and avoid any third-party crashes. Of course battery is the 2nd, because on any browser if it uses 15% of the CPU, flash is using at least 10%… 
    If you don’t play games, I think flash is useless for the web. The ads are a plague, Only few applications of flash are really needed, these apps will move to desktop version.

    But this decision is weird regarding silverlight (even if they couldn’t put it on every mac computers, neither on mobiles systems)

  • Anonymous

    flash and Silverlight aren’t a good for battery life… then they would complain how windows 8 doesn-t have a battery life like ipad, and windows 8 sucks and Microsoft bla bla.
    and i kinda feel like… the only reason i see someone would need flash its for games like facebook ones, and honestly if thats all about why people would want flash then… people should get a life.

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      What does battery life have to do with it? Most WP7 apps are done in Silvelright.

      I can see throwing Flash & Win32 apps under the bus, but Microsoft has COMPLETE control over Silverlight and .Net… 

      Anyone can create an enefficient Javascript code to drain battery life just as easily.

      Windows 8 is a great step forward but I can’t see how not supporting compatability between the development tools for WP7 and Windows 8 is anything more than an epic fail.

    • Dee

      Agreed. Once HTML5/JS are used to play all those HD videos and animations, it will be no better than Flash regarding battery life.

      At least today I can easily disable Flash in my browser.

    • Anonymous

      ehmm you talk about Silverlight and windows phone. then you mention about fail? did you watch the keynote, they showed how you would be able to use same app for windows 8 and windows phone. so i don’t know what are you talking about, specially since developers can use alot of languages to develop.

      and you say most apps are done in silverlight, but its not Silverlight exactly, yeah similar but you cant say its exactly the same.
      and it makes me think about how i really don’t understand your point. because you mention wp7 but it DOESNT support Silverlight nor flash either. of course there are apps, for example Netflix and hulu, and youtube and such though

      and battery life has alot to do, do you think plugins would be better than html5 for video? first you have to install the plugins, also updates, also if it has a security hole. and then it uses more cpu and memory and can be slower, which means experience will be bad.

      but its ok, you think its needed, i don’t think its needed. you think Silverlight its wp7, and i can say its similar but not exactly the same and well it doesn’t-t even support Silverlight to mention it here since its in the same level than IE metro win8, no plugins and only html5 (with mango)
      its ok have different views.

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      1.  It’s not the same app, it’s recompiling the development project with some minor changes.  Of course that was just a demo app who knows what sort of changes will be required in the real world.  My experience is that it is RARELY as easy as it is made out to be when taking real world apps and converting them.  (Converting from WPF to Silverlight for example)

      2. It is a build of the silverlight engine slightly modified to work for windows phone.  The point is they can do that for phone why not do that for tablet? 

      Both Android and iOS support running the same app on both phone and tablet.  This should not be a problem for Microsoft.

  • Anonymous

    everything has a begining has an end.

  • Spartansoulja

    Are you FUCKING kidding me? even Android has flash.. C’mon u cant screw Flash and silverlight like that :/ I’m getting an iPad or waiting for Windows 9, and that start screen needs work.. at least make it go to the desktop app tiles automatically when u press start from the desktop. Geez.

    • Avatar Roku

      You’re getting an iPad which will never support Flash in any form because Metro UI doesn’t support Flash? That makes absolutely no sense. At least Windows tablets can play Flash content in the desktop browser.

      Windows 9 will not support Flash either. Flash is a poorly written proprietary plugin that kills batteries on mobile devices. If HTML5 has already replaced Flash on 62% of sites then expect 95% of sites to be Flash-free by the time Windows 9 or iPad 6 roll around.

    • Anonymous

      Notice how well Flash is helping to sell Android tablets? It’s a total non-issue to the most important people in the tablet world. Product buyers.

    • Matthewmsft

      Dude. someone will make another metro browser for the start screen that supports flash -.- btw: iPad doesn’t support flash either…

  • Owais_503

    they should have added flash to the metro ie..

  • http://twitter.com/Nigel_Price Nigel Price

    unfortunately sites like the BBC site uses Flash all of the time so it will be around a while whilst all of these site convert to HTML5.  There is an Adobe Flash plugin 11 (Release Candidate) which works with Windows 8 and its browser

    • Anonymous

      That’s why I use Get iPlayer to download the shows I want to watch. Full conversion to h.264.

    • Matthewmsft

      I bet BBC will make a Win 8 app. oh and btw: in Windows 8 apps can be set to open in place of a website, so the BBC app could open instead of the actual BBC website when someone goes to bbc.com.

  • JustPassingThru

    Adobe Flash is still supported in Win8, just not for the Metro Apps… The IE10 for Win8(the usual desktop browser) will still run Adobe Flash.. Adobe will answer with AIR for those Metro Apps.

  • Anonymous

    Is this the final nail in the coffin for Flash? I sure hope so! It’s 15 years overdue!

  • http://www.facebook.com/halfares Husain Alfares

    isn’t the metro browser also ie 10? why would you make two different browsers and only one supports flash? thats just stupid!
    believe me i want flash to die,, i just don’t want flash support to die when most websites now use flash!!
    MICROSOFT BRING FLASH SUPPORT BACK!!!! FOR NOW AT LEAST

    • Matthewmsft

      Because the Metro browser is, by design, a smaller, more energy efficient version of the desktop browser. the lack of Flash in the smaller, more energy efficent, browser is something that I think should be a given.

  • http://www.appatic.com Avatar X

    I would not worry. Just got a hold of a project that will force enable plugins and runtime support in Metro. I mean, It was so amazing to see hacks and mod apps out just days after the DevPrev W8 got released.

    So far the hacks and mods i have seen are:

    1.Recover the Start Menu
    2.-Modded Start Menu with access to Metro UI-UX
    3.-Change Keyboard shortcuts

    Many variations for doing the above already.

    Under development?

    1.-Force Metro UI-UX as background in Desktop Mode
    2.-Force enable plugins and runtimes in Metro IE10
    3.-Force a Top Dock in Metro UI-UX
    4.-Force Metro  Apps to load into App Windows while in Desktop Mode.
    5.-Force Metro to not downgrade experience in lower resolutions

    And some other stuff that reads more ambitious, but also questionable. The in dev hacks may take months or even a whole year for them to be ready for general consumption. But given the high interest, i am sure all of them will be finished, and Power Users will have nothing to worry.

    • Ostanciaux

      What’s the interest in that ? When I’ve got a microwave, I don’t try to set the 900 watts mode to a 700 watts mode ! I’ll never understand the interest of such things… We can also try to make windows return to DOS just because we loved its black screen…

    • http://www.appatic.com Avatar X

      Hey, don’t shoot the messenger. :P

      And what it is the harm to you? they are all opt-in features provided for free in most cases by the Windows Modding Scenes.

      Not that different like the porting of Windows Vista and Windows 7 features to Windows XP. Or the porting of old apps and features from windows 2000 and windows xp to windows 7.

      I should know, i have posted on several of these.

      I see Windows 8 having two factions of modders and hackers:

      Faction One: Forcing as much of Metro UI-UX into Desktop Mode as possible.

      Faction Two: Bringing as much of desktop mode to Metro UI-UX as possible

      Things should stay fun like always.

      And while for Dos there is DosBox. A mod to make Win XP look like a faux Win 3.1, DOES exists for example.

    • Ostanciaux

      Sorry, I did’nt want to hurt you. I am a real DOS lover and I still use it with floppy in my core i7 extreme computer for obvious reasons. I mean that some hacks are really unuseful and if hackers want better OSs, they could just begin to make one from scratch on their own and I would be their first customer.

    • http://www.appatic.com Avatar X

      Hurt me? :P

      Not at all. Just stating how it is.

      DOS or MS-DOS lover? There is big difference. One goes more with FreeDOS and one with MS-DOS ;)

  • Tj

    To all lovers of flash. It’s time to move forward. Flash had it’s chance to prove itself. I mean how long has it been, I’ve been developing flash apps since it first came out under macromedia and until today, the same issues and problems are present. Try to realize that there is a very valid reason why those who understand the technology are all trying to get rid of flash. Don’t you guys ever wonder why it is on beta mode half the time that it is out.

    And for the guy who wrote “the tribe is dead”. Try a little bit of coding first as you seem to only see the surface of how flash works. Yes it’s all nice and pretty to look at but don’t you ever wonder why banks never use flash for thier online banking sites? Research before you write

    • ConfusedAlongTheWay

      I’m confused – the ‘tribe’ guy made no mention of Flash, so I’m unclear why you’d be bashing him in that regard – and besides, even if he had, his point seemed to have been that having created something about which many developers had grown substantially passionate, it was foolish of Microsoft to treat them like crap, for those that fel so strongly can – and will – go elsewhere, especially now that Google’s building a Silverlight of their own.  But none of that has to do with Flash, so I don’t get it.

      I do, however, know quite a bit about Flash and the degree to which it’s ugly on the inside, having never left behind the legacy of having been created by those who’d be better categorized as designers rather than developers.  On the other hand, I’ve also worked for far too many companies where the pattern was exactly the same – a fledgling effort takes off faster than anyone’s able to keep up and the constant forward momentum makes it near impossible to pay for sins of the past.  I’ve never worked for Adobe or Macromedia, of course, and while I’ve been a Flash basher along with the best of them, there’s one thing I can’t deny – they created something that became ubiquitous over time, warts and all.

      Have you or I ever achieved anything even close?  Doubtful…

      I also suggest that neither of us can deny that some of the most imressively experiences on the web were created with Flash and in an increasingly consumer-focused world of IT, the ability to create such experiences for the Web is exceptionally powerful and outright required.  I loved – LOVED – Silverlight for that reason, because it was a far better means to achieving the same, but now that it’s dead, what choices remain?  Uhm – that’s right, none whatsoever.

      To be honest, I can’t exactly imagine why a bank would be interested in creating a tour-de-force multimedia extravaganza for the web anyway – it’s just banking, so there’s not likely yo be any interest in anything more creative than has been possible via HTML and JavaScript for years.  I’ve no interest in working on such things anymore – do you?

      But for the things in which I’d invest both heart and soul, Flash and Silverlight were the best-suited and most powerfully productive kids on the block.  Could I do the same in HTML5 and JavaScript?  Someday, perhaps, but not today, not tomorrow and, I think, not soon enough to matter.

      So, as I’ve seen many others beginning to realize, despite all the lip service being paid to HTML5 and JavaScript as powerful standards for the web, those paid to intensively study the bigger picture see a whole different pattern emerging – the shift to creating the same kind of experiences I described via web-enabled application built upon native platforms, accessing services via the web.

      Apple’s already there, really has no interest in HTML5 and JavaScript, and those moving away from native applications in their space are doing so to avoid the AppStore limitations imposed upon them – foolishly – by Apple.

      Google’s abandoning JavaScript as well, now building what looks to be a Flash/Silverlight capability of their own (keeping it real – whether a plugins required or not matters to few).

      And years late coming to the party, as usual, here we have Microsoft coming to the party, pushing developers to use HTML5 and JavaScript in an environment that simultaneously locks them into a proprietary platform of an ever-changing name.

      For me, I’m going to continue building that which only become intensively more important in the years to come – incredibly immersive user experiences – anything else and I’d rather sell bedroom slippers.  If that means I need do so via native applications for Windows via XAML/C#, assmuning Microsoft’s capable of maintaining any worthwhile marketshare (somewhat doubtful), native applications for Apple’s platforms via Objective-C and for Android and more using that which Goole has in the works, I’ll do so.

      All in all, a far better investment than wasting time attempting to build the same using HTML5 and JavaScript, because 1) that’s going to continue to suck, require far too much work and yield mediocre results at best, and 2) I’ve been doing this far too long to ever again buy into the myth of ‘build once, deploy anywhere’.  Time to grow up – there are simply too few, if any, economic incentives and/or advantages for any of the major players to intensively invest in such endeavors.

  • Anonymous

    And besides Flash, “plug-in free” also means no Silverlight, Java, and no Unity plug-in either! Microsoft couldn’t break Flash’s hold on RIA with Silverlight, so now they are tossing Silverlight to the curb. I have to say that both the Flash and Unity plug-ins are definitely required if you want to play cool games on the Web, especially now that Flash has Stage3D and that Unity can now mirror-port to Flash’s Stage3D.HTML5 has a video tag and that’s about the only thing that is halfway useful in HTML5. But in reality HTML5 video still has streaming and stuttering problems and no DRM protection. Flash is still miles ahead of HTML5 video in features and performance. Many people are pretty ignorant when they throw around the “HTML5″ term, because what they actually mean (and are seeing is a generous mix of) is CSS and jQuery. Dumb people are just lumping CSS, JavaScript, JQuery, XML and a video tag into what they ignorantly call HTML5 when it’s not.The Flash argument has already been answered in the form of actual proof on both mobile phones and a multitude of tablets running Flash without problems. Video itself drains battery life no matter how good the technology. HTML5 drains battery life MORE than Flash does.Flash and other plug-ins like Unity should be a free choice on the Web. If you have any brains at all, then you would see that allowing companies to dictate to you no-plugins is a violation of your freedom of choice. Apple could have easily allowed Flash on the iPad and could have given the user the freedom of choice to turn it on or off, but everyone now knows Apple is a closed system to the Web. That’s the beauty of a plug-in though, if you don’t like it just turn it OFF and don’t use it. A lot of people have also forgotten that JavaScript is also a plug-in. You can open up your browser and turn JavaScript off just like any other plug-in. If you turn JavaScript off, then every so-called HTML5 web site using generous mixes of jQuery goes “bye-bye”.