Hey, why don’t we build the site in Flash! It’ll be realy cool!
July 15, 2009
In any web development process, someone always wants to use Flash. That’s understandable – you can make stuff move and dance around on the screen – but remember that Flash is also the basis of the most annoying ads on the Intertubes. So lots of people use “Flashblock” with the result on the right. Many other, portable devices, simply don’t handle Flash very well, again with the result on the right.
This screenshot is from an HP link about their little netbook. Notice the complete lack of content? It’s just a big, black square. I bet they wish I were reading about their netbook instead of writing about how crappy their website is.
Doing entire pages in Flash may seem fun, kids. Until somebody’s ad is poked out…
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I must say I’m surprised the site was all in Flash. That’s just stupid. If you want to have the pointless flash animation, just leave it to a simple movie or information window on the side. The important stuff needs to be readable by anyone if you wanna sell a product.
Isn’t that Sales 101?
My attitude about such sites is that anyone who is enough of an idiot to build a site entirely in a medium that isn’t yet open enough for people to use it no matter what computer they’re using is too stupid to get my business anyway. Flash, despite efforts to the contrary, is still only truly supported by Adobe plugins. If Adobe doesn’t support your platform, you don’t see much of the Flash content out there – maybe even all of it. I’m using 64-bit Linux these days. I don’t see a whole lot of Flash presentations properly.
Almost since the dawn of the web, there have been people who build the kinds of websites that garner artistic awards, but are absolutely useless for their intended purpose. Flash is just the latest technology to enable that impulse.
Yep, on my Linux machines, Flash is just a black square until I deign to click on them. Are you saying there’s no 64-bit Linux support at all? Amazingly short-sighted on Adobe’s part.
Apparently corporate stupidity is contagious. I just tried to look at the new Dell Adamo laptop – clearly intended to be a MacBook killer. Thought it would be a neato platform for Ubuntu 9.04, but the Dell Adamo site is only slightly less Flashy than the HP netbook site.
The latest outrage: to see the archived Feynman lectures, you need (clenched teeth) Microsoft Silverlight!
Open-source video formats can’t take hold soon enough for me. And all we need for a new laptop is specs and some high-res photos.
“People of Springfield! I’m sorry to distract you from all the bright lights and Flashy things…” /Sideshow Bob
Yep. If you want Adobe Flash in 64-bit Linux you’d better be ready to load a whole bunch of 32-bit software on your system. Kinda defeats the purpose of 64 bits, don’t you think? I haven’t been to Adobe’s site in a few months, but I don’t remember seeing an option for 64-bit Windows, either. Mighta missed that one, though.
In any event, that’s the problem right now. If you want proper Flash support, you’d better hope that Adobe feels motivated to write software for your platform. The Gnash project is trying to change that, but they still have a ways to go. Try it, if you haven’t already, and download all the gstreamer modules you can find. Should work for at least half the YouTubes out there now.