Opera joins in Jobs v Flash argument | Hacker News Reader

Opera joins in Jobs v Flash argument

techradar.com

28 pointsmogston27 comments

"Today's internet content is dependant on Flash," said Grønvold. "If you remove Flash you do not have today's internet."

That may be for some folks I guess. I run Safari with all plugins disabled and I'm able to do anything I want to do on the internet. To me, Flash is irrelevant.

Sure, and some people are perfectly happy using lynx. But the vast majority of people I know either use Hulu and/or play Flash games frequently, especially those in Apple's target demographic.

I've been using Firefox with Flash disabled for the last couple of days because of the obnoxious flash adds on m-w.com. I keep being surprised by how widely Flash is used.

I use ClickToFlash for Safari and I miss A Lot...

of ads.

Well, not really miss :)

> "Because eventually we will have the canvas [of the web] in good quality and we'll have the toolsets to use that canvas in the quality but in the foreseeable future, 18 months or so, Flash is not going away and it is critical."

What? Canvas of the web? Use it in the quality? Is this regarding <canvas>?

"Opera's growing influence in browsers has been illustrated by the huge take-up of the Opera browser for iPhone"

Really? I don't know a single person who has switched to Opera on iPhone.

I tried Opera on the iPhone last night...seriously disappointing. I used to love Opera on my little Blackberry Pearl, but it's soooo slow on the iPhone. Interface is odd also.

I had the same experience with their Android version. Tried it, but I don't see a reason to use it over the default browser (and yeah, the interface is a little odd).

It's perfect if you find yourself having to access an heavy site on a low bandwidth (or just spotty) connection. Using it on WiFi is pretty pointless.

It was the #1 iPhone app in numerous catgories shortly after it was released, probably where that statement is coming from.

I downloaded it because I was curious. I haven't opened it since.

I did

People would only switch to Opera Mini if that particular app's feature set (a method of low bandwith browsing) appealed to them. People would only be able to switch to Opera Mobile, an actual browser, if Apple allowed people to write apps using the basic technology elements that underlie browsers, but they don't.

Title is misleading.

Opera is not joining jobs and banning Flash. Opera is still supporting Flash.

They just said they they agreed that it is not the future and that canvas would replace it on the web.

I think the title is just ambiguous, as in "Opera joins in 'Jobs vs Flash' argument."

The title does not say or imply that they are joining Jobs. It says they are joining the argument.

Seems like a sane sentiment, although I personally think flash still has a place. I don't imagine that five years from now we'll be looking at flash as a relic.

People seem so focused on Flash in relation to games and video online, but they all fail to take into account the ability of Flash to access things like your webcam and microphone. So far as I know, these are not capabilities that are going to be part of HTML5.

I have more trust allowing Skype access my webcam and mic. How often are these capabilities of Flash used (besides chatroulette)?

Yes, how often are these capabilities used (besides one of the most phenomenal web applications in recent years, but these parentheses let me pretend that nobody cares about something like that)?

Gosh, who would've thought that I could install plugins when web applications needed access to bits I don't normally want them to have access to?

http://cyri.systemrequirementslab.com/CYRI/

ustream, stickam, chatroulette to name of few. ustream and stickam have been around a lot longer than Chatroulette too. I remember Leo Laporte pimping ustream back in '05 or so on one of his podcasts. Services like UStream allowed him to host 'live' video/podcasts where the audience could watch live (or download later) and somewhat participate in the podcast. This is something that would be a lot harder to do with Skype, at least on the video end of things.

I'm not defending Flash here. I'm just annoyed when people declare Flash useless because HTML5 'replaces it,' while completely ignoring aspects of it that HTML5 doesn't replace.

<device>? I think we won't see this tag soon.

Not even that. Consider apps that are used for screen or desktop sharing, e.g. LogMeIn Express and such. It is basically a Flash version of VNC viewer. I don't think these can be done in HTML5.

Just yesterday there was a story on ./ about a HTML5 coded VNC client.

Just a quick google search:

http://www.w3.org/2009/05/DeviceAPICharter

I only found out about this a few weeks ago, from another hn link. It's coming :)

"Dependant"?

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