RIP Flash

Adobe Flash used to be fantastic! It enabled even novice users to build nice websites and the admittedly simple video games were amazingly fun.

However Adobe Flash and Adobe Reader were developed without security in mind and it finally caught up with them in 2010. The matter was further complicated by the fact they were closed source, proprietary products so it fell to Adobe to fix the problem.

Steve Jobs weighed in on the subject and rather than use Flash, Apple adopted HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript – all open standards.

Open source is now standard though HTML5 was is in it’s infancy when Steve Jobs wrote about it in 2010. At the time Apple and Adobe were strong allies so the attack on Flash was even more startling. So much so that it inspired a bit of fake news by the NY Post surrounding an anti-trust inquiry into Apple that never actually materialized.

According to a person familiar with the matter, the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission are locked in negotiations over which of the watchdogs will begin an antitrust inquiry into Apple.

It seems Steve Jobs was just way ahead of his time.

Regardless, Flash is finally dead, toppled by poor security and an inability to adapt.