I had intended to write a post about Google’s Chrome Operating System, but then the New York Times called looking for an Op-Ed piece on exactly that so I gave it to them. Look for the column to appear Monday and I’ll put a link to it here.
The Times column is here.
Beyond the broader implications of the Chrome OS, one reader asks about the strategic involvement of Adobe Systems in the project, since Adobe is in the short list of companies mentioned in the Chrome OS FAQ. Why is Adobe on this list, asks the reader, and is Google likely to buy Adobe?
I have no inside information here, just the usual informed guesswork. The logical acquirer for Adobe, if the company is to ever be acquired, is still Apple, which would gain some real synergies in its entertainment endeavors as well as some needed technical depth.
What Google needs from Adobe is primarily Flash video. Remember that YouTube made Flash video a factor in the streaming market and Google now owns YouTube. Remember, too, that Apple’s iPhone has specifically shunned Flash, somewhat to its detriment. Apple’s reasoning — that Flash takes too much horsepower for smart phones — no longer really stands with the iPhone 3GS shipping. So Google’s embrace of Flash video for the Chrome OS AND Android helps YouTube while differentiating both products from Apple.
But does Google also need Adobe’s Flex and AIR platforms? That is less clear. Both Flex and AIR are runtime environments for cross-platform applications (Open Source applications in the case of Flex). Knowing a bit about how Google thinks, it is very possible that Flex and AIR will be seen as too heavy and — more importantly — too non-Google. So we might see Flex but not AIR, for example. I simply don’t know.
But I seriously doubt that Google will be buying Adobe or, for that matter, making ANY huge acquisitions in the months ahead.
Looking forward to the NYT column. My first thought when reading the Chrome OS story was: “Cringely should be good this week!”
Agreed. There has been a lot of discussion of Chrome OS in the news over the last couple days. So far all of it has been guess work, at best. I can’t wait to see well reasoned, informed discussion on it. Go Bob, Go!
I think that Apple is so focused on controlling the entire media experience, that buying Flash would be seen as a failure internally. It’d be a smart move to do, but one that I think egos would get in the way of. I could see synergies with Google, but think it would be an odd fit for them. Of all the companies out there, I think one of the major Hollywood studios would benefit the most by owning them. They are spending billions on social networks without revenue streams, when there is an entertainment monopoly available to them. Good thing they studio execs still don’t know how to identify good tech from bad. It’s probably best for consumers for Adobe to remain independent.
Apple was trying to get away from Flash because they remember the last time (or at least Steve Jobs remembers) when Apple/NeXT depended upon Adobe for a major part of their OS component. NeXT used Display PostScript which was still a proprietary technology under Adobe. If there was an issue with Display PostScript, Adobe would send down a developer to NeXT who would lock themself into a room with a NeXT computer. NeXT became completely dependent upon Adobe for their OS and didn’t like it too much.
Apple is also remembering what happened to them in the 1990s when the Internet started looking like Microsoft’s exclusive playground. Apple users were locked out of many websites because they required IE, Windows, and DirectX to work. That, and a lack of Microsoft Office almost killed Apple. (Yes, incompetent management also helped drive Apple into the ground too).
Apple knows its future depends upon the Internet and complete compatibility with it. That’s why Safari/WebKit was developed even though it meant that Microsoft would pull the plug on IE for the Mac. That’s why Apple is so involved in the HTML 5 standards, and had been pushing the HTML 5 standards to include audio and video linking capabilities. The idea was to completely eliminate the need for Flash.
Unfortunately for Apple, the HTML 5 committee just pulled the plug on the video and audio standards. Apple didn’t want to use Ogg Theora, but wanted H.264 since QuickTime already used that and it was a well known standard. Others insisted upon MP4 because it is more popular although there are copyright questions. Still others wanted Ogg codecs because they’re “truly open source” even though the tools for Ogg codecs are not hard to come by. With no consensus, there will be no standard.
Apple is doing its best to keep proprietary Flash from being a defacto Internet standard by keeping Flash off of the iPhone. Many Flash only websites have started rewriting themselves to remove the need for Flash navigation. Otherwise, all those iPhone users can’t surf your website. However, with the new Pre, Android, and other full feature smartphones coming out, Apple will need to allow Flash to work with the iPhone.
Apple will have to buy Adobe just so they aren’t dependent upon some third party for Flash. That’s a very weakspot for Apple. My prediction is that Apple will buy Adobe and make Flash open source. That would allow HTML 5 to be able to specify Flash as part of the standard. It will also eliminate the threat of Silverlight since all browsers will come with Flash. The last thing Apple wants is to have the Internet be dependent upon a proprietary Microsoft standard.
Imagine if a good percentage of the websites used Silverlight and Microsoft hadn’t gotten around to build a Silverlight plugin for the iPhone. Will people still buy the iPhone?
I have always had a problem with websites that require you to use Flash or some other tool that requires a browser plug-in just to visit the site and poke around. It is okay to use Flash to do specific things, but the over all web page, navigation, etc should follow open, public Internet standards.
Have you seen this? Flash has ISSUES:
Why Do Adobe Flash Videos Slow Down?
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/why-do-adobe-flash-videos-slow-down/
Why would Apple really want to buy Adobe for Flash when they are presenting HTTP Live Streaming as a protocol (MPEG-2 transport stream and M3U8 format) to the IETF?
sources:
http://arstechnica.com/web/news/2009/07/apple-proposes-http-streaming-feature-as-a-protocol-standard.ars
http://developer.apple.com/iphone/library/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/StreamingMediaGuide/iPhoneStreamingMediaOverview/iPhoneStreamingMediaOverview.html
https://www.macnn.com/articles/09/07/10/apples.http.stream.spec/
Its always a risk for non-engineers to write about technical issues. The idea that Apple needs to buy Adobe for “some needed technical depth” would be amusing if it wasn’t so wrong-headed.
Flash is nothing more than a very lightweight, and poorly implemented scripting language. “Flash Video” is a hack that attempted to make flash remain relevant in an age when it was quickly becoming obsolete.
Even Flash Video is obsolete now that h.264 is an open standard. Its only a quirk of fate (and a bad business decision on the part of YouTubes founders) that YouTube went with flash. There was no technical expertise or core technology advantage there.
The only thing Flash ever had going for it was bundling deals with Microsoft to get it installed in the browser and a bit more dynamism than existing html markup allowed. And then a hack to play video.
These have all gone away. Apple is clearly behind H.264 and HTML 5 both open standards that go to the core of the value that flash added to the web experience in the 1990s.
If you look at the rest of Adobe’s product portfolio, its overpriced junk that hasn’t had any innovation in a decade– hell their mac products aren’t even using Cocoa, and are built on the OS9 compatibility platform known as carbon.
Adobe’s apps give microsoft’s a run for the money in reaching the worst value and lowest reliability and highest user hassle factor.
Apple’s beating them in video editing with Final Cut, and will probably take over the rest of the business in the next half decade.
Why by Adobe? They’re a has been. And they have nothing to offer a company like Apple.
Well, maybe some brands and defensive patents. But those aren’t worth the amount Adobe, which still thinks its a relevant company, would be asking.
@ ‘engineer’: you said: “Its always a risk for non-engineers to write about technical issues.”
I say: Then you need to change your handle, ‘engineer’, because you clearly fall into the non-engineer category–as based on the number and severity of mis-statements in your post!
Claim: “Flash is nothing more than a very lightweight, and poorly implemented scripting language.”
Facts: Flash is: 1) a virtual machine (VM) and run-time environment (the Flash ‘Player’); and 2) is also the name of the tool/application which one uses to create dynamic images which run in the VM. The Flash VM can execute AS3 & AS2 code. It executes _binary_ (byte) code and NOT _source_ code. Note: Java and the .NET languages (i.e., C#) use similar byte code and VM technologies. Flash AS3 code supports modern object-oriented programming constructs (classes, inheritance, interfaces, polymorphism), plus other mechanisms such as: generics, data binding, both static and dynamic typing.
Counter-claim: It would be no more accurate to call Flash AS3 code a “scripting language” than it would be to call Java or C# the same.
Informed Opinion: you called [Flash AS code] “…very lightweight, and poorly implemented…”. I would argue that Flash’s strongly increasing acceptance as a Web Application and Cross-Platform Application tool (using the Flex and AIR frameworks) would contradict your claim. Furthermore, it has seen great acceptance among software developers with an interest in strong software _engineering_ (for example, among leading-edge Java developers).
Claim: “Even Flash Video is obsolete now that h.264 is an open standard.”
Fact: The most recent versions of the Flash VM include H.264 support.
Question: So _how_ has Flash Video become obsolete? Please, be _specific_.
Counter-Claim: The Flash VM’s inclusion of H.264 is a solid indication of its continued relevance and popularity.
Claim: “The only thing Flash ever had going for it was…a bit more dynamism than existing html markup allowed.”
Fact: major applications have been built with the Flash VM as their underpinnings. These include complex things like word processors (Buzzword), image editors (Photoshop.com), Visio-like diagramming tools; and countless Enterprise/Line-Of-Business applications (being used internally by major corporations).
Counter-Claim: applications can be built on the Flash platform that are as portable as Java applications and potentially are as rich as Java/MacOS (Cocoa)/Windows (.NET) ones.
Claim: “Apple is clearly behind H.264 and HTML 5 both open standards that go to the core of the value that flash added to the web experience in the 1990s.” (sic)
Fact: HTML 5 is still a _draft_ standard. Furthermore, only SOME (really a few bits) of it has been implemented and only in _some_ browsers.
Counter-Claim: HTML 5 is (largely) irrelevant until (and unless!) it is widely deployed across the mainstream web browsers.
Informed Opinion: We now have over a decade of _actual experience_ in seeing how new technologies and standards get defined and deployed over the Web. That experience suggests that HTML 5 will take a long time (if ever) to become widely useful/to be relied on. Specifically:
— The standards setting bodies work _slowly_.
— Technologies that only work in _some browsers_ face an up-hill battle, particularly when those browsers don’t have sufficient market share.
— Technologies that work differently between browsers and even ones that are unevenly implemented face challenges in becoming widely used.
— The vendor of the browser with the pre-dominant market share has expressed, at best, only grudging interest in implementing HTML 5 features. Their _actual actions_, however, demonstrate little if any progress on that front.
OK, ‘engineer’, the ball’s over to you!
Don’t forget about Acrobat. The one portable display document standard across *all* operating systems – Windows, Mac *and* Linux – is PDF.
Mac OS X’s implementation of PDF was written by Apple and used no Adobe IP – very deliberately. It’s also several orders of magnitude faster than Adobe’s own implementation.
NeXT’s PostScript was always impressively fast – just not ACTUALLY fast. Sure NeXT boxes rendered Display PostScript very impressively indeed, but it was always a serious bottleneck on the system. In fact NeXT had a technology called Intercepter (which basically blew a hole in the Window Manager for direct access) to allow applications that needed more speed (Insignia’s SoftPC is the obvious example). However, Display PostScript was always an Achilles heal and an example of NeXT’s brilliance (yes, it can be both things at the same time! – Apple wanted the latter without the former, hence they built their own implementation of PDF – and thought long and hard about speed).
I think that Apple potentially buying Adobe has everything to do with their creative tools and nothing to do with flash. The reason that flash support is so few and far between with smartphones is that quickness of interface and battery life are two of the most important user experiences for smartphones. I just don’t see HTML 5 and its video embedding capabilities not blowing flash out of the water in the browser space. Everybody wants it, but they just didn’t agree about the codec – letting the babies have their respective bottles and using local codecs seems like a fine, if clunky, idea to me. Apple has no problems with doing things like that anyway.
Back to Apple buying Adobe, I think that has a snowball’s chance in hell of actually happening. I could never see Adobe conceding that particular slapfight. If I had to guess, Apple will just grin and bear the fact that we’re not getting 64-bit creative tools from Adobe until the year 3000. Apples’ position will be hurt in the process, but I just honestly don’t see Apple forking over 5 billion dollars for Adobe, even less Adobe conceding to being bought.
No Flash on the iPhone. All the other cellphone makers should have such a detriment.
I’m sure Chrome OS will fully support Flash. There’s no reason not to. Google is not engaging in a traditional technology war, per se. They just want to steer as many eyeballs to their products and feed them as many targeted ads as they can.
As for Adobe AIR, it does conflict with their Google Gears technology a little bit. If Chrome OS really is just instances of the Chrome browser sitting on top of a thin Linux layer it might make AIR a bit of a moot point anyway. So far it seems that Google wants developers to embrace a pure AJAX/HTML 5 development ecosystem rather than AIR, Silverlight, and all the other technologies that are used by traditional platforms.
The bigger questions that arise are: Has Google orphaned Android? Will Chrome OS actually be a browser shell for an instant-on pre-boot environment? If not, will it be a full-fledge Linux distribution like the mythical Goobuntu Google purportedly uses internally? Will it seriously only be a browser that you boot to and, if so, has Google gone completely insane?
Why do you say that Flex is for Open Source applications? The Flex SDK is open source, but applications produced using Flex need not be. (And the Flex SDK by itself is rather bare-bones; the full-featured FlexBuilder IDE is *not* open source.)
Also, contra your article, Flex is not a run-time environment; it is a development tool. Applications developed using Flex/FlexBuilder use the same runtime as Flash animations. So Google doesn’t “need” Flex, it just needs a full-featured Flash engine, and developers can use either the Flash dev environment or the Flex dev environment to develop for it.
And I agree with Edward: Google wants to encourage the use of HTML 5 as a development environment, and so is unlikely to provide AIR as an alternative. But Flash itself is a must-have to make Chrome OS acceptable to users.
Google needs Adode to port Photoshop.
While office-applications can run as regular web-apps, data-intensive and cpu-intensive tasks like manipulating photos or video have a problem there.
Google announced their own NX-Project. So if they had Adobe port their Suite to the data-centre couterpart of Chrome-OS, they could run Photoshop in their “shippable data-centre containers” you wrote about some time ago, and users could control them over the web.
I tried remote-controling GIMP on regular Ubuntu over a DSL-Line vie FreeNX. It works fine. So imagine what would be possible if Adobe/Google rolled out a optimized Photoshop/NX – that thing would fly!
Apple buying Adobe – Not going to happen. Don’t think either company wants it either. Adobe wants to be a Windows only company (just look where features appear first and how they disregard the apple interface guidelines, which even Microsoft has had to follow do to customers screaming about non-standard UI stuff). Mac is a step-child in Adobe. Apple thinks they can do it better than Adobe.
Flash on iPhone – not going to happen. H.264 requires an expensive license due to patents but Apple holds some of those patents so it’s all they’re going to support on the iPhone and in Safari. YouTube makes some (not all but quite a few) available on the iPhone (and Apple TV) by having an H.264 version without flash available. I think YouTube will be dumping flash in the near (1-2 years) future. Adobe has been incapable of making Flash for mobile devices. Flashlite has seen very low adoption rates (maybe 1 phone has it? The Chumby uses it but that’s all I can think of)
Webapp version of photoshop – yeah not going to happen either. see Adobe’s inability to make a mobile version of flash above. Making a version of photoshop that doesn’t hog the whole CPU and suck down video card bandwidth like a lake through a broken dam is beyond them. trying to route that over the web to a browser is going to be too slow or too compromising for high-end professionals to adopt.
@Kevin: “Webapp version of photoshop – yeah not going to happen either.”
I think you need to look at this link: https://www.photoshop.com/
I thought, “how curious that I.C. wrote in such abbreviation.” But the beauty is in getting the ball rolling as it were.
Visually intensive apps can run over the pipe fairly well. Just look at some of the things Citrix has done with their technology. Many videos exist on YouTube showing them run multiple gfx heavy apps on light clients and even on the iPhone.
Edward Dinovo says: “I’m sure Chrome OS will fully support Flash.”
It certainly will, but will Google write their own? The current Linux flash plugin from Adobe is an awful performer, and the 64-bit version is highly unstable.
[…] Google/Adobe? NoThe comments are the interesting part. […]
The real reason Apple doesn’t want Flash on the iPhone platform is a strategic one. Flash can be a whole other alternative application platform. If it was on the iPhone OS, developers could deploy games and other apps onto the iPhone without going through the App Store, which would end Apple’s control as gatekeeper on non-web apps on the iPhone and the profits that go along with that.
Comfortably, the post is in reality the freshest on this notable topic. I agree with your conclusions and will eagerly look forward to your next updates. Saying thanks will not just be sufficient, for the phenomenal clarity in your writing. I will directly grab your rss feed to stay informed of any updates. Good work and much success in yourbusiness efforts!
Thank you for writing this, I can not find an information which is so clear and through up to now. Erp, customer relationship management are my favourites, please check.
I like blogs like this one, I am sure you put an effort on it to keep it up. Nice post, grazie mille .
Hello, I came across this blog article while searching for help with Microsoft Silverlight. I’ve recently switched internet browser from Chrome to Microsoft Internet Explorer 5. After the change I seem to have a problem with loading sites that use Microsoft Silverlight. Everytime I go on a website that requires Microsoft Silverlight, the site crashes and I get a “npctrl.dll” error. I can’t seem to find out how to fix the problem. Any aid getting Microsoft Silverlight to function is very appreciated! Thanks
Nico is my favorite person on the show, Sonny with a chance is the best! Thanks for your blog, I enjoyed this post!
If you want to be a Forex trader, you need a plan or a strategy to decide what operations to perform. There are many different types of strategies, but none of them are of uniform size. Each operator must develop a strategy that suits them and their situation. Some traders only on fundamental analysis, where others are not motivated to use the technical analysis, but is much more common for investors to use a combination of both.
There is a saying in foreign exchange market, The trend is your friend. Because prices move in trends, find out if you can, and install these trends tend, it will be profitable. Technical analysis is based exclusively on research and analysis of these trends. The market is moving clearly identifiable patterns, the models are investigated for years and are well known. The learning of these patterns and develop the ability to read these trends is the basis for a good strategy for the technical analysis.
Many tools are available to analyze and understand market movements and patterns. At the beginning trader, you have every tool to study independently, to develop a good understanding of their function and use. A master of the tools, you may continue, while the education of the next tool that you want to learn. Since many of these tools are similar to the time it takes to learn a new instrument, shall continue to decline, as you become with several of them.
They are based on many business strategies of the Support and resistance to find levels. The level of support is what is covered than the lowest price of a currency, the currency on that level and then increase again. The amount of resistance, the opposite is the highest price that the currency, but is usually done. Once this is reached, it will be someday. It is natural that the level of support and resistance to change gradually over time.
If a currency is soon beyond the normal level of support and resistance, then the currency should continue in this direction for some time. One currency will be as optimistic when it goes up, whether a currency is rising and breaking through its normal level of resistance continue to move upwards for a while.
You must determine the price tables contribute to the amount of pensions and the resistance of a coin. They study the maps on the search for a continuous pattern of high and low prices that the currency is higher. The more time you will take your card for more accurate and reliable analysis. You can then decide these levels, if you enter and leave a commerce.
This forex strategy is that the operators can be used, it is entirely based on technical analysis is based. To be truly effective needs analysis Forex traders who employ several strategies, depending on market conditions.
Hi admin , Why dont u put facebook badge on your site? Because I want to follow your fb. thx Regards Admin of vacationtravelmagazine.com
ts always a risk for non-engineers to write about technical issues. The idea that Apple needs to buy Adobe for “some needed technical depth” would be amusing if it wasn’t so wrong-headed.
Flash is nothing more than a very lightweight, and poorly implemented scripting language. “Flash Video” is a hack that attempted to make flash remain relevant in an age when it was quickly becoming obsolete.
Even Flash Video is obsolete now that h.264 is an open standard. Its only a quirk of fate (and a bad business decision on the part of YouTubes founders) that YouTube went with flash. There was no technical expertise or core technology advantage there.
The only thing Flash ever had going for it was bundling deals with Microsoft to get it installed in the browser and a bit more dynamism than existing html markup allowed. And then a hack to play video.
cheap VPS
These have all gone away. Apple is clearly behind H.264 and HTML 5 both open standards that go to the core of the value that flash added to the web experience in the 1990s.
I am extremely content to find this blog.Thanks for having the page! Im positive that it will be extremely popular.
nice post! I really like the style of your blog.
I appreciate all of the information you provided.
Thanks dude. This was interesting seeing
Thanks very good o/
Thanks very good o/
great thanks man…
good thanks o/
Very Interesting Information! Thank You For Thi Information!
Online dating has taken off all across the globe previously few years. Huge numbers of people from all over the world are looking for their perfect partner and the internet, through the use of dating websites, serves as the perfect medium to start their search. Online dating services have formulated a superb spot for single people of all types, from seniors to single parents, to search for people they’ll like us. Profiles are made by individuals, allowing others to find through huge databases of individuals to try and complement things such as location, age, interests and tastes. Many new online dating services have been popping up everywhere since the online dating market has grown. Market leading internet dating websites for example eHarmony and Lavalife are available in numerous languages, have an incredible number of users and are popular worldwide.
household insurance quotes
Good stuff old bean, really enjoyed this post, love the flow of your writting style and how well written everything is on your site.
I definitely am grateful for all of the tough effort that you’ve done keeping this site here. I truly hope this sticks around for a nice long time.
Thank you for the great info, i’m going to write on this too!
Thank you for an additional great blog. Where else could i derive this kind of info written in such an incite full way? i have been finding for such information.
Online dating has taken off all across the globe previously few years. Huge numbers of people from all over the world are looking for their perfect partner and the internet, through the use of dating websites, serves as the perfect medium to start their search. Online dating services have formulated a superb spot for single people of all types, from seniors to single parents, to search for people they’ll like us. Profiles are made by individuals,
^^ yeh that is so true. I have to agree with you
Between me and my husband we’ve owned more MP3 players over the years than I can count, including Sansas, iRivers, iPods (classic & touch), the Ibiza Rhapsody, etc. But, the last few years I’ve settled down to one line of players. Why? Because I was happy to discover how well-designed and fun to use the underappreciated (and widely mocked) Zunes are.
This is an extremely fantastic site you have going here. The matter is very informative and straight to the point. Excited to read more about your blog next time.
great web site thank you .. i like enjoying site.. for message posting.
yes i like google.. bad adobe =)
sorgulama, hesaplama834
good post good subject thanks for this site’s admins :=))1045
I image this may well be various upon the written content material? having said that I nonetheless imagine that it is usually suitable for just about any type of matter material, as a result of it will frequently be gratifying to determine a warm and pleasant face or maybe hear a voice when initial landing.
Good stuff you have here, I was going to mention this to a good friend of my
Thank you very nice place to implement for Happy
Buy Twitter Followers, 20k for 20$!!
peninggi badan alami
[…]we prefer to honor several other online web pages on the internet, even if they arent linked to us, by linking to them. Beneath are some webpages really worth checking out[…]
sterling silver jewelry supplies
[…]Sites of interest we have a link to[…]
male strippers melbourne
[…]below you will find the link to some sites that we consider you ought to visit[…]
https://www.sphericall.com
[…]Here is an excellent Weblog You may Find Exciting that we Encourage You[…]
DEA EPCS
[…]Wonderful story, reckoned we could combine a few unrelated information, nonetheless definitely worth taking a look, whoa did one learn about Mid East has got far more problerms as well […]