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Comment by yan | Hacker News Reader

I wonder why Jobs felt he had to explain this situation, which (in my opinion) was fairly clear to anyone involved in technology. Perhaps the criticism was getting to him?

Also, I found this to be a brilliant snipe:

> If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?

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It's called control over the experience something that really shouldn't be a surprise for Jobs.

There are literally millions of experiences out there that can't be done with HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. if you want proof, go to theFWA.com and have a look around.

For every bad flash solution out there, there are some quite fantastic ones.

Flash gives you control of the experience in ways that by any metrics outcompete HTML5.

This might not mean something for most people here at HN, but for quite a lot of people (the same ones that Jobs is catering for with his iPad) it's given them many great experiences. Experiences that are not going to be matched even by the best HTML5 developers out there for quite some time to come.

On my 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, their "Site of the Day" can't even update the cursor regularly; it only updates once every second or two.

You mean the Flash app linked to on the front page of theFWA that took 30 seconds to load and almost crashed Chrome on a late model Macbook Pro 17? Is that the kind of mobile experience you're after?

"almost crashed Chrome"?

Yeah man, you don't get that 'about to crash' feeling when you see the pinwheel in OS X?

There are literally millions of experiences out there that can't be done with HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. if you want proof, go to theFWA.com and have a look around.

I don't disagree with your general premise about flash offering more robust design control, and it's possible I didn't look around enough on the site, but I didn't see anything on thefwa.com that you couldn't handle with a HTML5, CSS, and JS (heck, I didn't even see much that you couldn't do without HTML5). Was there anything specific about that site you were thinking requires flash?

EDIT: Ah... I think I get your point, I assume you weren't referring to thefwa.com itself, but the sites linked from there.

Yes the sites that it is referring to is what I am talking about. You will be hard pressed to do anything like most of them in HTML5.

Or what about http://www.audiotool.com/

I would argue that dropping in gordon for a site like theFWA.com would easily solve the problem... seeing how everything they're donig with flash can easily be done with plain javascript

theFWA.com is a perfect example of Flash being a disaster. The entire site is Flash (completely unnecessarily).

Forgive me the simple question, but which part of theFWA.com couldn't be replicated in HTML5?

Not the site itself but the sites it's referring to.

I don't think he means the site itself, rather the sites linked from there under the awards section.

Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.

I think he states the major reason, Adobe seeks to characterise Apple as against the freedom of the developer. This campaign adds weight to developers that are jilted by the iStore. They can find a home in Adobe. I think that this should clear up why Flash would not be the friend of the iPhone developer.

What is the iStore?

Sorry: the iTunes Store.

That quote comes in the context of rollovers. Modifying a flash app so that it doesn't require rollovers is an order of magnitude less difficult than rewriting the entire program from scratch.

Analogy: "Instead of replacing the car's steering wheel with a joystick, why not just rebuild it as a boat?"

There are lots of good points in the article, but I found that line flippant and misleading.

Because that should be the developer's decision to make, not Apple's?

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