Information Sharing

Jeremy wanted some feedback on his article on DevNet, so here I go...

1) I think Macromedia has been given a little too much of the spotlight here:

Regarding rich clients, the statement “In reality, innovation has moved steadily along, primarily led by the now ubiquitous adoption of rich client technology such as Macromedia Flash Player. “ is not only misleading, but also untrue. Flash is a very small market segment and is hardly a driving force of innovation in the industry. Rich clients are gaining popularity because of the emergence of web services and all the hype surrounding them, not because Macromedia released a new version of the flash player. Additionally, I highly doubt that the killer rich client app will be written in Flash. The Flash RIA tools are great for creating stock tickers and weather updates, but those are nothing new and are hardly significant in the grand scheme of things.

Regarding RTC, the statement “At the forefront of this innovation are Macromedia Flash Player and Macromedia Flash Communication Server.“ is also a load of bull. Who actually uses the Flash Comm. Server? I know I've never used an app based off of it (or even heard of one that uses it outside of Macromedia). A lot of the innovation was really done by companies like Real who put streaming video on the map and companies like PlaceWare who took the initiative and helped prove that the web could be used to enhance real time communication between geographically diverse groups of people. Credit should also be given to ICQ and AOL for brining instant messaging to the masses; but Macromedia leading innovation here, yah right? What have they given us besides a proprietary set of proticols that no one uses?

2) I would also say that a very important area that was overlooked is the widespread adoption of standardization. Without standardization, we could not be where we are and we could not be going where we are going, because the Internet 2.0 is built upon a solid foundation of standards. The Java / .NET standards are the driving force behind the component based software revolution that you mention (although credit must also be given to COM, which really gave legs to the component based software revolution). The XML, SOAP, HTTP, TCP/IP, etc. standards will be the fuel for the birth of the rich client revolution.

3) Hosted applications are not nearly as important as hosted services. The internet 1.0 was about hosted applications (ie. web apps / web sites), the internet 2.0 is about distributed applications built on top of hosted services. Hosted apps are a waste of processing power. Decentralize. Embrace the edge of the network.

 

6 Comments

  • Interesting, I mostly agree with his article and think you are off base with your dismissals of his article.

  • I mostly agree too (with the exception of these three things).

  • Jesse, you do yourself a great disservice by not bothering to actually find out more about the impact of Flash on web application development. With the imminent release of Flash MX 2004, the Flash development platform continues to innovate and provides the only decent cross platform, cross browser, environment for rich application development. Not to mention Central -- the client-side, offline/online flash application initiative.

  • So if the killer rich client app will not be written in Flash, which cross platform environment will it be created in? I would love to hear you back up your bold statements with some facts.

  • Well, I think it was Newton who said this: If I was able to look further, it was because I stood on the shoulder of giants.

  • Your last comment are ignorant ones and lack research. It's unfortunate that you seem to have such a grasp on technology and be against something that will play a huge part in what you refer to "Internet 2.0".



    It seems insulting that you compare the REAL player vs. the flash player when Macromedia cleary offers a superior product. Name one feature that REAL has the Flash player does not and try to think of the file size of the flash player vs the size of the real player.

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