While the technologies used on the web have always been mostly free, with non-free technologies delegated to non-essential parts of the net, this has been changing fast, lately. The popularity of YouTube has demonstrated the pervasiveness of Adobe's Flash, to an extent where not having Flash is one of the big downsides to any alternative operating system. And to possibly make matters worse, Microsoft is pushing its proprietary Silverlight technology. The founder of Mozilla Europe, Tristan Nitot, warns for "the dangers of the proprietary web".
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Member since:2005-07-07
> btw, can one reliably develop flash based content without some kind of tool from adobe?
Adobe have open-sourced the Flex SDK, so yes, actually.
To me that seems the wrong way round. They should've opened up the Flash format and kept the authoring tools proprietary. That's where there strength is and it's a model that's been shown to work for Photoshop, Acrobat and so on.
The short-sightedness of this plan will show if people start using Silverlight, thinking that Moonlight makes it a more open format. To me, Moonlight is a disaster waiting to happen.
I support Mono because you are always in control of the apps. Banshee or F-Spot will not break because of what Microsoft or some web developer did. If Mono and .Net ever diverge, who cares?
I can't support Moonlight because you are never in control of the app/content. Someone else compiles and stores in their own server. They have free reign to change something that breaks compatibility whenever they want, as do Microsoft.
It seems that most people ever support both or neither, but there's a huge distinction there.
Member since:2005-07-06
well i quick guess is that by keeping flash locked like they do they can sneak in new features in updates, and then release a dev tool that introduce this new feature at the same time as they announce it. any third party tools however will then have to catch up while adobe is working on new features again...
Member since:2005-07-03
Yes, even using only open-source software: http://osflash.org/ames
Member since:2006-10-08
Don't mind. Most who are tired to be bombarded by unusable "Flash" overloaded pages are tired to open their mouth, too. And if they do, they get modded down, because "Flash" is cool and you cannot exist without it. :-)
Well, I think there are encoders that are free - for example the port swftools, p5-SWF-Builder, -Filer, sswf, vnc2swf (taken from FreeBSD's ports collection), as well as there are fre "alternatives" such as gnash or swfdec. Sadly, the last two mentioned are not 100% capable of what the OS-pedantic "Flash" players are, and furthermore, I'm not sure how good the free "Flash" encoders are - I have to admit that I'm avoiding "Flash" since I (1) didn't find any use for it and (2) the format isn't compatible to the OSes I use.
Would work vice versa, too. "You need to by (insert name of application) to view this important and entertaining adverdizing content." :-)
Hmmm... Realplayer... I think I heared this word years ago... :-)
Member since:
2005-07-06
thanks, i was starting to feel a bit alone...
btw, can one reliably develop flash based content without some kind of tool from adobe?
i think that is the classic plan for all these systems. give away the "player", charge a fee for the "recorder"...
its been done that way in one form or other since the first realplayer plugin...
Edited 2008-05-01 05:04 UTC