On Friday, September 16, 2011 2:50:05 AM UTC+2, opinali wrote: > > So it seems that Windows 8's new "Metro" user environment will make IE > plugin-free. Any attempt to use plugins like Flash, Java, Silverlight or > anything else, will bring the user to the "old-style" (as in Windows 7) > desktop, which will be seen as a severe experience degradation for users who > prefer the new environment. >
I'm glad that Microsoft goes HTML5 only. To me, a browser plugin is something that *extends* the browsers capability, like showing you your unread Gmail count, allowing you to save a page quickly to Evernote or Instapaper or make the structure of the content available for developers (like Firebug). Flash, Java and Silverlight always *replaced* the browser - they were different runtimes and had their own languages and libraries and UI elements and OS integration and so forth. They all could run outside the browser, but they mainly needed the browser as a delivery vehicle. Noticed another thing that these "plugins" all share? They are driven either by a single company (Flash, Silverlight) or by a committee that represents a considerable part of the industry, but still not all the big players (Java). In contrast, the W3C has pretty much everybody in the software industry on board. Software designed by committee is probably always worse than software designed by great companies alone, but HTML5 as the plumbing of the Internet is too important to hand over to a single company by itself. Of course, HTML5 can't do as much Flash / Flex can, for instance. But there still is value in having a technology that delivers a base level of functionality across all PCs, smartphones, tablets (though the app still has to adopt to the different UI constraints). Adobe recognized this move to HTML5 themselves. They now position Flex<http://blogs.adobe.com/flex/2011/08/flex-where-were-headed.html>for enterprise applications and as a mobile cross-plattform tool (mostly for games, I'd assume, since "native" Flex UIs typically just feel equally out of place everywhere), leaving "consumer PC applications" to HTML5 only. And their video streaming server now supports streaming to iOS<http://www.tuaw.com/2011/09/09/adobes-flash-media-server-4-5-will-stream-video-to-ios-devices/>as well. We'll probably never know why, but I guess that Apple's refusal to support Flash in the iPad and the huge success of the iPad were the tipping point. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msg/javaposse/-/6oG4YirjK3oJ. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
