Adobe Flash Now Officially a Part of Google Chrome

MacGene noted that Google has announced plans to include Flash with Chrome. This step will make Chrome easier for Mom & Pop to use, but comes with a host of issues that have been discussed here before. I expect them to announce Silverlight Thursday.

Comments

hopefully..

[Archon-X]

Now, with a bit of luck, Chrome won't become unresponsive when it stumbles across flash applets.

I love Chrome, but its poor flash handling (and stalling when downloading) drives me bonkers.

Re:hopefully..

[SanityInAnarchy]

ctrl+f does more or less the same thing. I agree, I wish the whole process was a bit more configurable, but it is all there.

Re:Silverlight?

[3vi1]

Do you really expect them to announce including Silverlight too? Why?

Think about it: What day would Thursday be?

Re:I'm ok with it.

[IrrepressibleMonkey]

I'm not sure that's true...

When I go to this link...

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html

...and check out my Website Storage Settings, I see a whole bunch of sites that I've never even visited.

(Or at least I don't want to admit too...)

Re:Silverlight?

[Toonol]

Netflix.

I have no particular desire to use Silverlight, but it's required for instant netflix streaming. And, honestly, it seems to handle it better than Flash. That's the only place I've ever needed it, but it's a pretty big reason to get it.

Re:Stupid Media Spin To This Story

[WiseWeasel]

BTW, I'm referring to shady link-baiting stories like these:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=32470
http://gizmodo.com/5505682/how-adobe-and-google-are-making-sure-flash-will-never-die
http://www.fool.com/investing/high-growth/2010/03/30/is-this-googles-sneak-attack-on-apple.aspx
http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/30/chrome-os-flash/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/30/google_integrates_flash_with_chrome/
http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20001429-264.html

Re:I'm ok with it.

[WrongSizeGlass]

Apple includes Flash in OS X Safari updates. I always have to remove it after updating Safari (last one was the upgrade to 4.0.5). I had to remove it again last night after applying the 10.6.3 update.

I don't know if they include it in updates to Safari for Windows, but I know I'm sick of them including it in the OS X versions.

Re:Would prefer Java

[ShadowRangerRIT]

Java startup time is too big a hurdle. Even with the modern JVMs the startup time is far longer than the time needed to download the page content on a broadband connection. Flash won that war largely because it didn't lag nearly as badly (and tended to be less of a memory hog). Java may win on execution speed after startup, and it may be more OSS friendly, and it may be more flexible and better documented, but if your user experience is that it takes too long to start and it eats all their memory, the rest doesn't matter. They'll click away from the page and never visit again.

Re:Is it removable?

[selven]

Download Chromium, the pure open source version.

Re:The problem is that it promotes the use of Flas

[dgatwood]

The problems with client-side scripting have nothing to do with the language. Embedding another scripting language like Python would be unnecessarily confusing and would just add complexity where none is needed. What Flash provides that JavaScript does not are:

• Possibly more powerful/flexible layout of text and images with greater control than the HTML DOM provides (but I'm not certain of this).
• Animation, transition, and transform features that are compatible with the most popular browser (Internet Explorer).
• A truckload of design tools for building up the content visually with a minimum of programming required.

Notice that none of these have anything to do with deficiencies in the programming language. Indeed, the language used in Flash, ActionScript, is based on ECMAScript, which is the same fundamental foundation as JavaScript. So for all practical purposes, from a language feature perspective, there is already close parity. I won't go so far as to say they are the same language, but... they're so close that all you have to do is squint a little.

Adding Python to a browser is just a recipe for magnifying the existing compatibility problems by splintering development into multiple camps. That's precisely the way to guarantee that Flash never goes away. Now, instead of focusing on tools for one language, you have to focus tools on two---one for Python in FireFox and maybe a couple of other browsers, and one to deal with JavaScript for all the browsers that won't ever support something like that (IE). To describe this as a terrible idea is insulting to terrible ideas.

I blame Internet Explorer.

[MikeFM]

If not for Internet Explorer the web would be years ahead. Before IE even existed I was doing things with the web that Flash didn't offer for years. The IE took over and everything went stale because nobody was willing to cut off the 90% of Internet users to stupid to use a real browser. I liked it better in the days when we blocked users from our sites for being logged in from AOL, Prodigy, etc. We let the idiots in and it all went to hell just as we imagined.