Dave Crossland wrote:
2008/5/2 Tim Dobson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
simon wrote:
Adobe is removing restrictions on the use of the SWF and FLV/F4V
specifications says Aral Balkan: http://aralbalkan.com/1332
Interesting, I thought.
I'll be interested to get Dave Crossland's perspective on this.
Adobe's dominance in this area of computing is being challenged in two
ways - by Microsoft (Silverlight) and GNU (Gnash) - so they are taking
evasive action to try and maintain their dominance.
Does Gnash really challenge Adobe? Any more than Wine, Samba, dotgnu or
Mono seriously challenge Microsoft/Windows dominance? I'm pretty
skeptical. OK that's over polite. I think you're mistaken.
Rather it reinforces a classic argument "but it's an open standard! the
spec is (now) out there, ... and look ... Gnash ... there are multiple
implementations, even opensource ones."
On top of that, things are set up for an equally classic "you've tried
the rest now try the best" argument. If you've committed to Flash, best
to use the real thing eh? Users have a choice now: they can get an
implementation from the leaders or from the followers. (not my view but
a natural spin on things)
I see vastly more pressure on Adobe from Silverlight, and from the
return of HTML/.js post-Ajax. As W3C explores addition of <video> and
more to HTML, the special benefit of embedding these alien objects in
Web pages begins to shrink. Gnash is - don't get me wrong - a great
project. But this isn't some David/Goliath triumph.
What evidence do you see pointing to Gnash threatening Adobe?
cheers,
Dan
--
http://danbri.org/
-
Sent via the backstage.bbc.co.uk discussion group. To unsubscribe, please
visit http://backstage.bbc.co.uk/archives/2005/01/mailing_list.html.
Unofficial list archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/backstage@lists.bbc.co.uk/
