Flash is as open as HTML5
How’s that for a controversial title? But… It’s true… Hear me out!
First of all let me say that I have absolutely nothing against HTML5! Innovation and competition is always good and keeps everyone on their toes. UPDATE: I also want to emphasize that this is not a fight. HTML5 and Flash can live together just fine and can even complement each other!
One of the first blog posts I read this morning was one on AppleInsider. An Apple spokeswoman claimed that Adobe’s Mike Chambers got it all backwards when he blogged about Apple’s closed system. That’s not the part that made me cringe though. She said that “it is HTML5, CSS, JavaScript, and H.264 that are open and standard, while Adobe’s Flash is closed and proprietary“.
Ok… So… Let’s analyze that a little bit… Let’s begin with the biggest claim here: H.264. Last time I checked, H.264 was far from open. It is owned by a private organization known as MPEG LA who said earlier this year that “Internet Video that is free to end users would continue to be exempt from royalty fees until at least December 31, 2015“. Nobody knows what is going to happen after 2015. The patents awarded to MPEG LA don’t expire until 2028. So… to make this clear… H.264 is not open.
So what about HTML5, CSS and JavaScript… Those are open, right? Well yeah. The specs are open meaning that everyone can download those specs and build an application around it to display that language. Hey… Wait a minute… That sounds a lot like Flash! The specs for FLV (Flash video), SWF (the file format for Flash Player), AMF (the binary format for exchanging data) and RTMP (the protocol used for transmission of audio, video, and data) are all published and can be downloaded by anyone.
The specs for HTML5 are decided by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG). The WHATWG was founded by individuals of Apple, the Mozilla Foundation, and Opera Software in 2004, after a W3C workshop. Apple, Mozilla and Opera were becoming increasingly concerned about the W3C’s direction with XHTML, lack of interest in HTML and apparent disregard for the needs of real-world authors. Anyone can participate as a Contributor by joining the WHATWG mailing list. The same goes for Flash. Our bugbase is open to anyone and anyone can view bugs and add feature requests.
But the Flash runtime is closed! Ok… Sure… Flash Player is not open source although some parts are. That said… Ask yourself this: Is your browser open source? The only browser that is completely open source is Firefox. Safari is only partly open source (only the WebKit engine). The same can be said about Chrome (in the Chromium project). However, the biggest HTML runtime out there –Internet Explorer (still used by over 50% of all internet users)– is as closed as Flash Player. And so is Opera (even though they are part of the WHATWG).
And with that, I come back to the title of this post: Flash is as open as HTML5 = HTML5 is as open as Flash.
UPDATE: You should also read “HTML5 canvas proprietary Apple technology?” by Leo Bergman and “I’d rather be a Woz” by nothingGrinder. Hat tip to Philippe and Aaron who posted this in the comments.
Note: I’m sure many of you will have some comments on this topic and I have no problem with your comments as long as you keep them constructive and on topic.
Note 2: For those who saw a drop in the comment count: I just disabled and deleted Topsy trackbacks. These are not comments but automatic pingbacks from RTs on Twitter.
(Image credit: Justin Marty)
Kevin Lynch at NewTeeVeeLive
Earlier this week, Kevin Lynch was a guest at NewTeeVee Live. He talks about Flash on TVs, the future of the Flash Platform. He also talks about how open Adobe has become and was also asked about his stance on HTML5.
Open at Adobe
What is “open”? It’s a question I’ve been asking for quite a while now and I can’t seem to find a definitive answer.
Dave McAllister (Adobe’s Open Standards Evangelist) actually sums it up nicely: “Open is the currently most misused word in the IT space,” he says. “Open really comes down and says it’s accessible, extensible and can be freely used by anyone. Most companies define open as a single dimensional aspect. For Adobe it’s all aspects of communications and technologies. For us, those are open source, standards and community.”
Check out this video to learn more about the open initiatives at Adobe and just how open the Flash Platform really is.
Today we also released the Open Source Media Framework (formerly known as Strobe) and the Text Layout Framework on our Open Source website.
Why I love the Flash Platform…
Before we start and just so we get this out of the way… For 2 years now, Adobe pays my paycheck. That said, I “saw the light” of Flash more than 13 years ago. Because of my long history with Flash, I feel I can say that this is an unbiased post.
Everywhere
First of all, Flash is everywhere. I’m not just talking about its ubiquity but also about the variety of devices it is available on. It’s not just a browser plugin anymore. The Flash Platform now extends from desktop to mobile to consumer electronics. There are already more than 1 billion devices in the market today that support Flash content. While this is a “lighter” version of the Flash Player, it already has a lot of its bigger brother’s features and is already used for lots of mobile applications, games and promotional content. Together with the Open Screen Project partners, Adobe aims to bring the same consistent runtime that you’re used to in your browser to a broad variety of devices. In the not too distant future, you’ll be able to repurpose the code base across multiple devices. I’m actually doing a workshop about that very topic at MAX this year!
Consistent
With Flash, you never needed to worry about how your application will look in browser X or on operating system Z. And you still don’t have to worry about that. If Flash Player is installed, the application works and behaves consistently across all browsers and operating systems. Even applications/sites built with Flash 1 still work as designed. If you want to use any of the new features that are available with a new release of Flash Player, you (as the developer) can use express install to transparently upgrade the Flash Player. The same thing goes for desktop development with AIR. A single AIR application installer runs on Mac, Windows and Linux machines without having to worry about operating specific settings or features.
Community
Even back in the early days of Flash, the community around it grew every day. Just about all of the early community sites around Flash are still alive and kicking. Ultrashock and FlashKit, for instance, are still going strong. If you get stuck somewhere, there’s always someone around to help out. If you’re looking for a particular ActionScript library, chances are that someone has already created one. Some of these ActionScript libraries have even caused some amazing innovations on their own. Papervision 3D and FLARToolkit are just a couple examples. Many sites and applications like Facebook, Flickr and Twitter even have dedicated ActionScript 3.0 libraries.
Open
Yes… Open! Not only is Adobe very open about what it’s doing and future roadmaps, the file formats used by Flash Player are also open. The specs for the SWF and FLV file formats are open as well as the specs for AMF (the binary format for exchanging data used by the Flash Player) and RTMP. Adobe also uses and supports many open source projects like Eclipse and WebKit and also contributes to the open source community.
But the most important reason is actually pretty simple. The Flash Platform is just a lot of fun to develop for and it’s very clear that the future is looking very bright for Flash Platform developers. Flash on!
Why I think the Open Screen project matters…
It’s all about user experience. I could just end this post right here because that’s what I think is the main reason the Open Screen project matters. The Flash platform has really revolutionized the user experience on the web and we have all gotten used to having this rich experience. With more and more devices being connected to the web, people expect these devices to have the same experience they are used to. Just the other day, I was witnessing a new high-end-phone user surfing the web. She could not understand why some parts of the sites she was browsing to, worked fine on a PC but not on that new, shiny and expensive high-end-phone. Things like little widgets on a page or even full sites would only show a little “missing plugin” icon. “That’s because this phone doesn’t have Flash”, I remember saying which she just couldn’t grasp.
We’ve all become accustomed to things just working without having to think about it and also to having rich interfaces on the web. We are used to seeing animated menus on DVD’s and are rapidly getting used to seeing interactive menus on Bluray discs. We’re used to animated rich menus on game consoles and its games. So why can’t we have this experience everywhere?
If I switch on my digital TV set-top box at home, it’s far from a rich ‘engaging’ user experience. The interface is dull and dead slow with no connectivity to online information and communities. I always think about what I could do with Flash to have a richer experience Flash only were available on this STB. The same thing goes for the menus in TV’s. How much more could you do if you could ask a Flash designer/developer to make the menu instead of having to write it in some obscure language that offers no richness whatsoever. How much more exciting would it be to control your TV/STB/PVR with a rich connected user interface that immediately gets online reviews, ratings and comments about the TV-shows you are programming?
This is why I think the Open Screen project matters. It’s not just about bringing Flash/AIR to mobile devices, I think it’s about bringing that rich experience that people are used to, everywhere.
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