You know what Flash is, because you’re not stupid.  You know how wonderful Flash can be, and you also know how terrible it can be.  You know that Flash is to the Internet, what peanut butter is to chocolate.

What you may not know, however, is just how limiting Flash is to the potential of the Internet.  You see, the Flash player is patented by Adobe Systems Inc. and comes with a restrictive license agreement.  A few excerpts from the license agreement that you’ve probably never read:

Section 3.4:

No Modification or Reverse Engineering. You may not modify, adapt, translate or create derivative works based upon the Software. You will not reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or otherwise attempt to discover the source code of the Software except to the extent you may be expressly permitted to reverse engineer or decompile under applicable law.

Section 5:

The Software and any authorized copies that you make are the intellectual property of Adobe Systems Incorporated and its suppliers. The structure, organization and code of the Software are the valuable trade secrets and confidential information of Adobe Systems Incorporated and its suppliers.

So, Adobe has an Intellectual monopoly over Flash.  Aside from the EULA, why is that a bad thing?  It’s bad because it represents centralized, proprietary control over a very significant portion of the Internet, which goes against the open, standardized nature of the Internet.

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and php are the building blocks of 99.9% of websites, and they are all open standards, sactioned by the World Wide Web Consortium (w3c), which means that anyone can use these languages to build anything they want or need.  The standards are there to help developers ensure that everyone who looks at their website or uses their code sees the same thing no matter what web browser they use.

Flash is not open-source, and it is patented, therefore, it cannot be a w3c standard.  Because of its proprietary nature, Flash lacks the versatility of other standards, which is why I say it limits the potential of the Internet.

Flash has only one true competitor in the market, and that’s Microsoft’s Silverlight, which is also bogged down in patents and licensing agreements, so it’s not an improvement.

The Free Software Foundation sees the development of an open alternative to Flash as the number one priority, so they have Gnash, a less capable (it’s in development), but more open and friendlier player.

But the w3c might just render everyone’s efforts to compete with Flash unnecessary.  With the new draft of HTML (version 5), w3c adds the <video> tag.  Ars Technica explains the benefits of this new feature:

For content providers like YouTube and DailyMotion, the HTML 5 video element offers numerous advantages. It integrates seamlessly with conventional HTML content and can be manipulated with JavaScript and CSS. This enables Web developers to build video player interfaces that are more consistent with the rest of their website. The ability to control playback with JavaScript allows video to be a more native part of the user experience in interactive Web applications.

Downloading flash might not be a big problem for the end user, but for site owners who want to host video, the licensing costs are tremendous.  HTML 5 helps to change that.

Mozilla’s Firefox 3.5 (coming out very soon!) is HTML 5 compatible, and all the other web browsers will follow suite in the near future, so say “good bye!” to Flash, and hello to HTML 5!

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In an interview with PC Pro, Mike Conner, Firefox Architect,  comments on the recent controversy surrounding Microsoft in the EU, saying that he would be against bundling Firefox with Windows.

“My personal view is that it’s not the right outcome, the choice would be weird. There’s no good UI for that.”

It was Opera who brought the charges against Microsoft, saying that bundling translates into marketshare, and Microsoft’s bundling of IE with Windows was monopolistic.  But Connor disagrees, referring to Firefox’s rapidly climbing marketshare:

“It’s [Opera] asserting that bundling leads to market share. I don’t know how you can make the claim with a straight face, as people become aware there’s an alternative, you don’t end up in that situation. You have to be perceptibly better.”

download ubiquity

Mozilla is developing a firefox extension designed to make web services like email, google maps, wikipedia, flickr, and Answers interoperable.  I strongly recommend this add-on for anyone who considers themselves heavy web users.

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A few weeks ago, the European Comission complained about Microsoft bundling it’s web browser with it’s operating system, calling it anti-competitive and monopolistic.

Now the EU is considering forcing Microsoft or computer manufacturers to bundle Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari with the operating system.

Microsoft faces the threat of monetary fines, proportional to the sales of windows-based PC’s, and they plan to request a hearing on the matter, before the Commission makes it’s ruling in 2 months.