Apple's Steve Jobs is spreading FUD on Flash
Beagleblog
Starting with the presentation of the iPad there was a flamewar going on between Flash lovers and haters in thousands of comments on various blog sites. Haters welcomed Apple's decision to not allow the Adobe Flash player on the iPad and saw the future of the multimedia web in HTML5. Flash proponents, on the other hand, said that HTML5 is just not ready and even if it was some things just aren't possible. Both were speculating on the Apples motivation to disallow Flash content on their iDevices, culminating in a recent change of their SDK license that was obviously targeted against the recently released Adobe Flash CS5 program that allowed developers to compile Flash content into native code.
Now Apple CEO Steve Jobs reacted with a rare open letter where he recounts the reasons for Apple's move. he starts with
"they say we want to protect our App Store ... Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true."
Now whether Flash is a closed or an open system is a matter we will delve into in just a second. How Jobs can claim that any of his systems are open is totally beyond me: App store, iPhone, iPad are all closed systems, as recently proven by their own moves. Apple takes the freedom to remove applications from the store as they please. I am aware of the fact that great parts of the Mac OS X are Open Source and I have found myself on several occasions to point Apple haters to that fact. Core parts of the OS like Cocoa aren't open though, so how much is there for an open system?
Jobs continues to claim:
"Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc."
Now the Apple CEO is either misinformed or flat-out lying. Adobe Flash is "open" in several respects. First there are the Flash specifications, namely SWF and FLV video. Both are open and a while ago Adobe has lifted the ban on open implementations of any Flash software. Compare that to the Apple license mentioned above. Adobe has donated the Tamarin Actionscript compiler to the Mozilla foundation quite a while ago. Actionscript 3 is in itself an open standard based on the ECMAScript spec. Finally Adobe has released the Flex compiler as an open source project, that covers the whole Flash development process.
Closed products Adobe still has are the Flash Media Server and last not least the Flash Player browser plugin, that Adobe delivers free of charge. It is true that this makes Flash a platform that is not 100% open. But claiming the opposite is just not true. In my opinion Adobe should just do us all a favour and release the source code for the Flash player so discussions like this have an end.
Comments
comments powered by DisqusSubscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Gnome Fans Everywhere Rejoice for the Latest Release
Gnome 47.2 is now available for general use but don't expect much in the way of newness, as this is all about improvements and bug fixes.
-
Latest Cinnamon Desktop Releases with a Bold New Look
Just in time for the holidays, the developer of the Cinnamon desktop has shipped a new release to help spice up your eggnog with new features and a new look.
-
Armbian 24.11 Released with Expanded Hardware Support
If you've been waiting for Armbian to support OrangePi 5 Max and Radxa ROCK 5B+, the wait is over.
-
SUSE Renames Several Products for Better Name Recognition
SUSE has been a very powerful player in the European market, but it knows it must branch out to gain serious traction. Will a name change do the trick?
-
ESET Discovers New Linux Malware
WolfsBane is an all-in-one malware that has hit the Linux operating system and includes a dropper, a launcher, and a backdoor.
-
New Linux Kernel Patch Allows Forcing a CPU Mitigation
Even when CPU mitigations can consume precious CPU cycles, it might not be a bad idea to allow users to enable them, even if your machine isn't vulnerable.
-
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.5 Released
Notify your friends, loved ones, and colleagues that the latest version of RHEL is available with plenty of enhancements.
-
Linux Sees Massive Performance Increase from a Single Line of Code
With one line of code, Intel was able to increase the performance of the Linux kernel by 4,000 percent.
-
Fedora KDE Approved as an Official Spin
If you prefer the Plasma desktop environment and the Fedora distribution, you're in luck because there's now an official spin that is listed on the same level as the Fedora Workstation edition.
-
New Steam Client Ups the Ante for Linux
The latest release from Steam has some pretty cool tricks up its sleeve.
I reckon they will come round
Mike
Apple and Microsoft
Flash forat stinks
Adobe, Apple and Microsoft
I watch these discussions with great fascination as I consider starting my own blog titled "He Man Adobe Haters Club". My club would be a sister club (existing or not) to the "He Man Apple Haters Club", and the "He Man Microsoft Haters Club".
I have read every book I can find concerning Apple/Jobs, and Microsoft/Gates, and have determined in my mind, that Adobe is merely a "Jobs/Gates wanna be, with no class".
All three will discover sometime in the not to distant future that they will need to do what all purveyors of goods and services must eventually do, and that is provide value for the money they expunge from the public.
To use "He Man..." terms (cleaned up a bit) they all have us by the testicles right now. But being "big" no longer works today. A company must produce a product or service that functions and performs as promised, or they will be squeezed out... did someone say "US Auto Industry"?
I guess I am getting old for I seem to have my eyes and mind "In the Clouds" right now, with considerable hope. Of course somewhere down the line there will most probably be a "He Man Cloud Haters Club" as well