Comments on: Future of Web Video

By: nothinggrinder

nothinggrinder — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:47:16 +0000

Dear Sx,

There are two ways in which Adobe's Flash Player remains closed:

1. Trademark
2. Source Code Availability

The Flash community is very aware of how strict Adobe is with its trademarks. Adobe forces all open source projects using the name "Flash" to stop due to trademark infringements. SWFObject (Formerly Flashobject) is a prime example:

http://blog.deconcept.com/2006/04/21/flashobjec...

You cannot download the source code for Adobe's entire player (Open Screen Project Partners excluded). If you choose to build a player yourself you need to build it from the ground up using the ActionScript Virtual Machine & SWF Specification. Adobe simply provides you will all the tools you'd need to build your own (open source). Here is a quote from Wikipedia, 3rd paragraph in the Supported Platforms section:

"Although SWF has recently become an open format again, Adobe has not been willing to make complete source code available for free software development. The source code for the ActionScript Virtual Machine has been released as a project named Tamarin"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobe_Flash_Player

Tamarin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamarin_(JavaScrip...)

As you can see Flash Player is in fact proprietary in the sense that Adobe owns and controls its version of the software and the name. So please, before you post derogatory statements on our blog, do your research and provide resources to back up your claims. I have dedicated my entire career to the research and development of the Flash Platform and would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Sincerely,
Aaron Franco
nothingGrinder CTO

By: Sx

Sx — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:02:16 +0000

I wouldn't trust a framework that was built by people that claim Flash as completely closed source – this proves you don't know the technology you are working on. Flash on the client side (the Flash Player) is about 90% open-source (proprietary video codecs and few other tidbits not owned by Adobe are the only things that are closed source when it comes to Flash Player), and on the development side is 100% open source (Flex SDK). Of course, authoring tools (Flash CS* and Flash Builder) are not – that's how Adobe makes money.

By: pknight2

pknight2 — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:29:33 +0000

I think its worth not losing site of Flash's uses beyond video. It had a long history pre-video, and could have a long one after. It will evolve.

I talked a client into using Flash video on a product launch as soon the first version of Flash that would support it was launched (was it Flash 4 or 5?). They shot these great videos, and we put them in place, all worked fine (created them on a G4 powermac… 255 ghz or something! – one of the blue and white ones) They were duly loaded onto a windows laptop for the launch, but on the big night… ground to a halt. Slowed and stopped like film getting stuck in a projector. What was I thinking! Jumping into untested technology in a high pressure production situation like that! It was just because I wanted the job, and I didn't know how to use Director.

By: video seo

video seo — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:05:34 +0000

The video starts with the beginning of Java in 1991. Then, it was named Duke was apparently around from very near the beginning. And, well, the video proceeds from there to outline the history of Java, with some focus on in particular.

By: nothinggrinder

nothinggrinder — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:44:58 +0000

In reply to this post: http://blogs.adobe.com/conversations/2010/02/op...

I've said it before and I'll say it again. HTML does not fall back to flash. Flash falls back to HTML. I've been preaching this for years.

Any enhancements made to HTML, Javascript, PHP, or any other web technology only make Flash better. The advancement of these technologies help us create a similar user experience across all platforms. This came to light when SWFObject (http://code.google.com/p/swfobject/) was released years ago.

Recently, Youtube has implemented an HTML5 beta. The videos lose all interactivity in HTML5, drastically taking away from the user experience. Everyone wants a standardized web, well Flash is already standardized. Cross browser, cross platform.

I've written more about Flash and the future of web video here:
http://blog.nothinggrinder.com/future-of-web-video