posted by David Adams on Thu 15th Sep 2011 07:08 UTC, submitted by kristoph
Microsoft announced during the build conference, and Steve Sinofsky reiterated in a blog posting that: "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. The experience that plug-ins provide today is not a good match with Metro style browsing and the modern HTML5 web." Sinfosky goes on explain why Microsoft will not include Flash and why it's no longer needed. It's as close as we'll get to an obituary for Flash. Update from Thom: Added a note in the 'read more'!
Update from Thom
The Flashless iOS was the first punch in the face of Flash - it was far from down and out, but it was a little groggy. Further punches in the face came from Adobe's complete and utter inability to bring Flash to mobile devices. Flash doesn't work as it should on Android or webOS - slow, touch unfriendly, and a power hog.
And now this. This is Microsoft kicking Flash to the curb. The world's most popular operating system will not be receptive to Flash, and Microsoft openly stating Flash is history pretty much means that as a platform for the web, it's done. Flash may still serve a purpose in other ways, but the Flash most of us know and hate - that's gone.
This is good news for the web. I do think Adobe has had enough time to make Flash work properly on mobile, and they simply failed. Since the release of the iPhone, Adobe promised us a working Flash on mobile, and now, four years down the line, it's still not there. Between then and now, we've seen entirely new mobile operating systems rise, we've seen an entire Windows release, and another one being made, several Mac OS X releases, and so on. Yet, Flash still isn't ready?
You had your chance, Adobe. You failed.
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