[was = Warning! A Linux Commercial] Flash Sucks

[Jonathan Arnold]

Tom Metro wrote:
> DHTML and animated SVGs may end up being just as annoying, but because
> neither of these technologies are implemented with a closed binary,
> there's a good chance that the end-user will retain better control.
> Initially that will come in the form of Greasemonkey (and the like)
> hacks to disable functionality, and eventually as more people get
> annoyed, the browsers will adopt fine-grained controls, much as most
> browsers today have options to control various JavaScript operations,
> like opening and resizing windows.
> 
> In the effort to give users more control over how their CPUs get used,
> I'd like to see browsers adopt a better infrastructure for controlling
> plug-ins, as well as JavaScript. For example, I should be able to enable
> a setting that suspends all JS and plug-in threads when I minimize a
> browser window. Rarely does a browser need to do anything useful when it
> isn't the active window, yet accumulate a bunch of open windows and
> watch your CPU get eaten up.

I've been playing with OpenLaszlo and the newest version allows you to
save their player as either Flash or DHTML and the differences are
incredibly minor, so there's hope for an open standard. If it wasn't
for getting sent YouTube videos, I'd certainly do without Flash. And
Adobe adding Flex isn't a big change; all it did was give an open
standard to essentially program the closed Flash player. Big Whoop,
I say.

-- 
Jonathan Arnold                       http://www.buddydog.org

Here's a bumper sticker I'd like to see: "We are the proud parents
of a child who's self-esteem is sufficient that he doesn't need us
promoting his minor scholastic achievements on the back of our car."
- George Carlin

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