Opera CEO Says We Don't Need Silly Flash

Flash is showing its age, no doubt about that. However, the world isn't going to change to HTML5 overnight.

Or the HTML5-laden YouTube video, if you joined the beta. ;-)

While I do love Adobe products (with the exception of Flash), things aren't looking good for Adobe at the moment. The good news is that they seem to be embracing HTML5 themselves--maybe we'll see some cross-compilers between Flash and HTML5 from the Adobe camp in the future.

hmmm idk if I want to believe "Lie"

Fix your memory leaks Opera.

Then talk about innovation.

Fine... HTML5, CSS, and Javascript can do what Flash can do but... almost any good or fun site uses Flash. So why not just support for both? Flash has been around for a long time and in almost all cases it is not taxing on computers. At least with Flash their's no need to start the plugin like Java. Just support Flash and when Flash flatlines don't support it. Lots of excuses in my book...

I don't like flash-y sites myself, but this article sounds like toms (?) pro-apple propaganda, nothing else. We know for quite a while, what can and what can not be done without flash. Try to "easily" give user feedback about the uploaded files, for example.

And how many users use browsers that fully support HTML5? 0%? Thanks.

Still a lot of Flash movies out there to stop supporting Flash. Think of all the porn movies that will need to be converted.

Flash revolutionized the internet, no doubt about it. It made things interactive back when javascript meant some annoying, lagging snowing-effect on webpages. However, Flash is definately falling behind, I see it used mainly for 3 things: games, video-players, and ads. I don't think us consumers give a rats ass about ads, so that just leaves video and games. Since HTML5 can handle both those things, is open, and doesn't require unnecessary plugins (video codecs aside), it only natural that the web will progress in that direction.

Remember when viewing videos meant installing RealPlayer or QuickTime (or worse, some website's custom spyware)? Now its all flash, and soon, it will all be HTML5. Flash will remain in the games market for some time (I don't think you can just "port" flash to HTML5), but the open HTML5 is simply a better solution to the closed Flash technology.

Think about this, Adobe Flash does NOT support Internet Explorer 64-bit version (which is really annoying because when applications request IE specifically on Win 7 64-bit, it seems to default to the 64-bit sans-flash version). The bit-depth of the web browser should have nothing to do with the content displayed. That's sort of the opposite purpose of the internet.

JavaScript is just as bad as Flash Mr. Lie.

And Opera, while the most used is also the worst browser on the market. So lets not really look to them for inovation, kay?

Yea good... Now that i think of it....Flash does blow.

Before anyone mentions the need for Flash to play sophisticated internetty games...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhM [...] r_embedded

Funny how HTML5 is the buzzword right now when the new 'standard' isn't actually finalized to a standard!

Flash sure has its issues but it has also been revolutionary, HTML5 and flash will complement each other for a long time to come... plus, webmasters - who's going to spend time converting all those flash ad's (note: at time of writing there are 3 on this page).

Sure Flash has problems and as with any product that becomes dominant its more vulnerable to attacks based off its high usage. All these attacks against Adobe though is rather pathetic of small people (like Opera) once more trying to get on the national tech news stage by siding with Apple in the argument.

Flash has turned into crap lately and if you ask me it started after Flash 4.0, but Apple? Pssh they are even crappier and so are their opinions. The more I keep hearing these absurd attacks against Adobe to get attention from the Media capitalizing on the issue, the more I side with Adobe.

Adobe should take note from Microsoft. You own the industry with entertainment development. Halt CS5 for a year or two from the Mac platform and mark my words by CS6 Steve Jobs will quit being the selfish asshole he is.

For me, Java games have usually been much slower than flash games. This is especially true when Java has to boot up first.

Also, I have flash block, so I do not care about how much flash is on a site.

I want to know how to make quick easy games without flash.

you may not need flash, but it is still a nice thing to have.

Sounds like the migration will take place slowly.

I have the no flash load plug in enabled in firefox. I just got so sick of the obtrusive flash advertising on sites. It's a god send. if I do want to view the flash content it's just a mouse click without having to reload the entire page.

oh yesssss more java scrip, i am being sarcastic. very easy to hack...

I agree with the Opera CEO. But I do wish they'd fix the memory issues in 10.5.

Also, I'm ditching Flash the second that it becomes feasible.

flash just crashed my opera 15 minutes ago... also fix the memory leaks!

We need polls on Toms Hardware, like who uses Opera.

There's a whole different side to the flash framework that many seem to overlook, it IS a powerful application development tool that is continuing to evolve. FedEx for example, is utilizing the flash framework to track in real-time their shipping fleet - Their app shows where they are on an interactive map, estimated time to arrival, it even shows the temperature of their shipping trucks (if they are transporting heat sensitive materials, etc), everything in real-time, wrapped in a very slick GUI. They did an amazing job leveraging the framework. Several other companies are doing the same.

Unfortunately, or fortunately depending how you look at it, flash is a very versatile tool - this versatility however, allows advertisers to abuse it. As a development framework, flash is quite powerful, as a media player/deliverer, however, it is only as secure/stable as the 'developer' writing the code. And this 'developer' can be any old joe schmoe who could care less how secure/stable 'their' program is.

I've tried them all..Opera was the least functional of them all by far. Oh yeah more Java... yeah ok... keep your Java I like my computer to run a good pace.

Also, what applications require IE 64bit? I've never had to use IE 64bit for anything.

Steve Jobs is beyond arrogant now. The only thing Apple computers are good for is photo and video editing. I hope Adobe pulls the plug on CS5 for Mac. Adobe could survive for a few months while the Apple customers revolt. I would love to see that.

Now we can look forward to html5 ads. If they load faster and cause fewer complaints would that lead to more ads? Will we be able to block the ads?
I tried using html5 on youtube with chrome, but it was too buggy. It may be the future, but it's not ready yet.

HTML5 is the future -- I'm totally on that bandwagon. The more confidence people have in HTML5 the more people will use it and the faster it will take off. Enough confidence and support and it will replace flash. Adobe said themselves that the point of flash is to do what HTML4 and javascript fail to do.

I myself have been longing for a replacement of flash for years. Flash was a necessary evil though. Godspeed HTML5!

Java deserves just as much scrutiny as Flash

I hate java programs as mentioned above they run slow and are buggy. programing java is a pain i hate it almost as much as i dislike flash. I hope flash disappears soon, but in reality it will be around for a long time. i just hope flash only stays around for flash games...which i never play.

Html5 will replace flash for videos that's a certainty.