2008/5/3 Dan Brickley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Dave Crossland wrote: >> >> 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.
Do you agree that overall, free software seriously challenges proprietary software? > 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. (These seem to be two parts of a single argument, with the first implying the second. I'm glad you've called out this second part as explicit :-) But things are always subject to the "you've tried the subjugating, now try the free" argument :-) Proprietary software that use data in an "open standard" don't subjugate people as much as they usually do, because making independent implementations isn't as hard as it could be. Although proprietary implementations of open standards, such as web browsers, are often the most complete, interoperable, reliable, fast, etc, but because they subjugate people at all, they ought to be boycotted. > 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) This is obviously a false dichotomy and I'm glad to hear its not your view :-) > I see vastly more pressure on Adobe from Silverlight, and from the return of > HTML/.js post-Ajax. I totally agree that there are multiple challenges to Adobe's dominance in this area, and I omitted to mention the challenge Google is a good mascot for. > 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? Adobe's threats to Gnash developers. Speak to the Open Media Now Foundation about that privately :-) -- Regards, Dave - 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/
