>I want to remind everyone what happened, here. [...]
These were lies, but Apple's henchmen in tech media, especially Wired and Gawker, repeated this lie endlessly, [...]
>I was a professional Flash developer at the time,
I think your personal financial investment into the Flash development platform biases your history.
In contrast, I wasn't a Flash programmer and only a user and I disagree with your claim that it was an Apple-orchestrated conspiracy.
Even before 2009, I (and many others) dreaded the Flash plugin. Yes, the early Youtube used Flash but when a website like a restaurant displayed their menu using Flash, it was a terrible experience. Each time a website displayed the "Flash plugin required" , it was a hassle. And even after downloading the plugin and then visiting the same website a week later, you'd inevitably get "We're Sorry -- You need to update your Flash Player".
Adobe Flash was also one of the top reasons in early 2000s for desktop browsers to crash. Misbehaving plugins like FLash was one of the motivating reasons for Chrome to make a bold architectural decision to isolate each tab into its own process so Flash would not crash the entire browser. The Chrome release was 2008 which was before the 2010 Steve Jobs "Thoughts on Flash"
Based on countless developer testimonies (such as yours), I'm convinced that Flash was wonderful for the programmers & content creators -- but as a consumer of computers since the 1980s, it was one of the most user-hostile technologies. A lot of us didn't need Steve Jobs to tell us that Flash was suboptimal; we experienced it firsthand.
>The web is unable to deliver an experience like Flash could, and likely will never be able to.
Again, as a user, I see no website today and think to myself, "I wish this was using Flash because it would be so much better." Can you give a compelling example?
My personal pet peeve with Flash websites was that all the text was usually non-selectable (and thus non-copyable) except for widgets such as text boxes. So e.g. in case of the menu, you couldn't copy the name of the dish to look it up. In other contexts, it could be a much bigger annoyance.
>I was a professional Flash developer at the time,
I think your personal financial investment into the Flash development platform biases your history.
In contrast, I wasn't a Flash programmer and only a user and I disagree with your claim that it was an Apple-orchestrated conspiracy.
Even before 2009, I (and many others) dreaded the Flash plugin. Yes, the early Youtube used Flash but when a website like a restaurant displayed their menu using Flash, it was a terrible experience. Each time a website displayed the "Flash plugin required" , it was a hassle. And even after downloading the plugin and then visiting the same website a week later, you'd inevitably get "We're Sorry -- You need to update your Flash Player".
Adobe Flash was also one of the top reasons in early 2000s for desktop browsers to crash. Misbehaving plugins like FLash was one of the motivating reasons for Chrome to make a bold architectural decision to isolate each tab into its own process so Flash would not crash the entire browser. The Chrome release was 2008 which was before the 2010 Steve Jobs "Thoughts on Flash"
Based on countless developer testimonies (such as yours), I'm convinced that Flash was wonderful for the programmers & content creators -- but as a consumer of computers since the 1980s, it was one of the most user-hostile technologies. A lot of us didn't need Steve Jobs to tell us that Flash was suboptimal; we experienced it firsthand.
>The web is unable to deliver an experience like Flash could, and likely will never be able to.
Again, as a user, I see no website today and think to myself, "I wish this was using Flash because it would be so much better." Can you give a compelling example?