Will Flash disappear from the web? Elkest Solutions blog

Will Flash disappear from the web? Posted at 29.03.2010 10:40 by Martin Grüner

Flash does not need tombstone just yet

Rise of HTML5 and Apples attempts to suffocate Flash by not supporting it on their mobile platforms has made it one of the hottest discussion topics online. The importance of Flash online is already changing. Many things done in Flash before have now became playgrounds of various JavaScript libraries. Mostly thanks to simplicity of animations using jQuery and Prototype, Flash has given up several functions it used to have. Including:

Slideshows, both large and small
Tabbed content
Sophisticated image galleries. I got to admit, Flash still has some advantages over JavaScript still, but they will disappear as HTML5 becomes standard.

The list keeps extending as web technologies evolve. It is already possible to execute movie like animations without using Flash, JavaScript can be used to create games and CSS3 supports sophisticated graphical elements without images. In that light, future of flash seems dark indeed.

However we can’t just bury Flash without first analyzing its evolutions and considering Adobes intentions for the platforms development. Recently introduced Adobe Flex platform uses ActionScript 3 as scripting language. That’s same as newer versions of Flash. ActionScript 3 is a great step towards a sophisticated development environment compared to prior versions.

What does that mean from websites point of view?

Flash/Flex will take online application development to whole new level. JavaScript will replace Flash on small, activities like slideshows, but it will be used for sophisticated custom solutions. A nice example of it is http://www.gettheglass.com/index2.html At same time, there are several things that are easier to do in Flash compared to JavaScript.

Being able to do same thing with various technologies gives developers a change to choose the most efficient one. Creating a game in Flash is much easier than doing it in JavaScript. Flash is going nowhere, at least as long as they dominate the games segment.

3 comments

Cedric said:

I'd be very glad to have flash gone. I really can't stand the policy that Adobe is handling for developers. Why are their tools so expensive? I really don't get that. Why are their products 4x as expensive as an OS like Windows? Why? Same with their highly overrated Photoshop: Why Oh Why do people pay so much for that product while you have a very good alternative: GIMP, which is free... Same with their PDF standard: Why keep it closed all these years? Big thank you to the teams at OpenOffice to include it for free in their free suite! Again: I really really don't like Adobe's culture and I'd be happy to see flash disappear from the www.

John said:

Future is the mix of all technologies. Maybe you don't like flash. But a technology with such an inversion as Flash will not disappear. HTML5 is a markup language, you should know. WebGL is sloooooow. The final HTML5 spec will be ready in 2014. By then, Flash will be at his version 15, including full 3D and many features that they will try to approach in HTML6 (maybe in..... 2020?) W3C sucks. It's a patent recipient. A companies mess. Flash is like a hammer. There are people doing nice things with it. But you can't judge or remove the hammers, if a loser uses it to kill people/CPUs.

david echeverri said:

Flash won't go anywhere, html5 doesn't compete with it, in fact you could export a html 5/Javascript package in flash CS5 if you wish, Flash is a multimedia authoring suite and a powerful lightweight plug in, Apple won't like flash because flash will destroy I tunes with apps like Grooveshark and the others coming in the pipeline... I bet for Flash, yeah expensive, but you pay for what you get, and you can do things with great value.

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