And don't forget that HTML5 and CSS3 'will' be great just as soon as they are adopted by a large enough number of browsers, so they can't be considered standard ways of specifying content yet either.

And if we remember the one fundamentally predictable aspect of technology … it changes … then we can expect other technologies such as HTML6 and CSS4 to superceed XHTML and CSS2, just as they superceeded HTML4 in a 56kbps internet world.

If Flash can teach us anything though (afterall, it has been around for 10 years now), it is how bad practices can distort the actual progress. Flash has alot of bad rep about resource hogging etc, but of course it does … it is still the most prominant technology for the most resource hogging content; video and animation. Added to that, Flash has adopted the bloated libraries and classes habits as javascript has … with that, comes sloppier development. And this is where Flash is quite simply, not alone … it is just easier to see fullscreen video and animation problems than server-side database problems for example.

the argument that Flash is a CPU hog doesn't wash. CPU power has been growing exponentially for the past 20 years and there is no reason to believe that that trend will not continue.

Flash integrates faily seemlessly also with other great Adobe production tools such as Photoshop, Illustorator, After Effects, Acrobat. I do not work for adobe by the way nor does anyone pay me anthing to say this;-)

I think there will be a creative backlash in the art and design scene against this slagging of Flash technology, which has helped to produced so many of the more interesting web sites out there.

I've been using Flash for many years, on apple computers to produce web sites and rarely if ever have a crash. Certainly not enough to break my work flow.

I honestly think this is about a battle for control of software licencing between Apple and Adobe. Both great companies. As a designer, i do feel that Adobe has the strongest suite of software tools for me to use and i've been using computers to create for about 20 years and do stay abreast of what's out there. Another great tool, on another topic, gotta put in a plug for Painter, it's great for painting, much better than photoshop in terms of realistic paint effects. Photoshop is my tool of choice for image editing however.

I love the Apple platform, OSX is very stable and intuitive. I'm not too excited about the ipad. It's like a giant iphone so far as i can tell. I'm happier with my macbook pro, upon which i have more control of the software, how i connect to the net, intstallations etc. I think eventually ipad type computers will rule, and we'll see, perhaps html 5 will eventually do away with flash; i hope not. Flash has hard core support among real web artists and designers.

Flash also offers numerous benefits including:

DRM built into the platform

Easy scalability to other technologies outside of web, including multimedia, dvds and more

Compatibility with h264 and other formats

Extensibility and interactivity so developers can have full control over their application, not just playing back a video file. This includes integration with desktop applications built in Adobe AIR.

Compatibility given every browser and 99% of computers support it (except of course for 100% of i-touches).

New technologies including 3D, which otherwise won't be supported until at least html 6's release of web GL.

Apple has always struggled with flash and has always had limited implementations of it on every single version of their OS.

Listen up Apple, give your customers what they want. This is yet another sign that you're more than beginning to lose the plot.

And that's only free for certain licensees, as well. So it's still an ugly, ugly picture.

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2010/02/royalty-free-codec-still-needed-despite-no-cost-h264-license.ars