The Praise of Flash
OK, so everybody is kickin’ Flash when it’s down? Mmmhh.. let’s see if we can do something. I don’t necessarily agree with all I’m gonna say, but it’s a useful brain training.
Why Flash is better than something else
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Advertising
At present, Flash is still the standard for almost all banner positions. Could you imagine a CSS based banner? What about javascript disabled browsers? Could you imagine a site without banners? No banner, no money, no site. -
WYSIWYG
Flash is still the only way a designer has to be sure that what he designed is what he’s gonna get, most of all in terms of typography, and staying in control of the bandwidth load of the final user. -
Cross browser
An embedded object, as a swf file, is always equal to itself so cross-browser by definition. -
Heritage
Steve Jobs is kicking in the face a huge majority of developers who, with blood, sweat and tears, learned to master Actionscript language and to solve almost all problems (including SEO compliance) which time to time popped out in the industry. Javascript programmers aren’t so easy to find, especially with design skills. What about it, Steve? Are you going to design for us? -
Underdog
Finally, Flash is becoming the underdog. For me, by definition, this means I like it more than before. Especially when someone who created the most proprietary platform in the world (Apple) is riding the “openness” horse to bury it.
Anyway, the industry is aware that Jobs is battling against the cloud computing, trying to keep information and service inside his i-Walled garden, and Google is the forst opponent.Further reading:
http://is.gd/bXH1A
http://is.gd/bXH39
This is not the first time that Jobs makes us believe with a huge media coverage that he’s the Good one fighting for freedom against the evil (remember 1984) while he’s building a nearly soviet-oriented platform behind the i-Ron curtain.
Update: Adobe answers, open letter about the “openness” of the web
