The HTML 5 Flash debate is on…it’s been on for years now. Proven to be the biggest in HTML history, the 5th iteration of the Hyper-text Markup Language championed by Google, Apple, Mozilla and Opera is taking center stage to becoming the next-generation markup language all in favor of Open-Internet Standards hope for. On the left, we have the HTML 5 proponents who claim (not wrongly) the HTML 5 is there needs to be, the right, its mostly Adobe and corporations who stand to benefit from a long-standing Flash reign (sorry can’t come up with any), like always, we also have the skeptics in different shades of doubt on this side. Ask me, and I’ll say I’m somewhere in the middle.
After a careful consideration of what’s happening at the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) and Adobe’s response to the pending doom of its Flash player plugin and all other web-related flash applications, I’d say that it does seem that HTML 5 is winning the race – long term. Ian Hickson of Google Inc, the editor of the HTML 5 coupled with other techies from the four alliance have worked hard at this HTML 5 there’s little reason to doubt the potential success in terms of adoption, reliability, and the inevitable occurrence it will replace everything HTML 4 in at most a decade.
Adobe Flash Kicks Ass
A lot of people ask me, “what’s about the HTML 5, what’s so special?”, I laugh and jokingly say “It’s nothing you expect.” More seriously, the HTML 5 is everything there needs to be for an open-web. Take note that at least three of the four companies charging the HTML5 race are heavily involved in open-source products. I decided to exclude Apple because they’re not entirely pro-opensource but won’t fail to give support when it’s to their advantage. Mozilla and Opera are basically open houses with a lot of community work going on. Google supports the open initiative with its Android mobile OS and a handy number of products except its search products – and I won’t give up that code for free too, so we’ll give it a pass.
What HTML 5 promises is a web that draws us away from patent licenses, and the close community development chains Adobe has created over the years. Today, nearly 95% of web videos require installing the flash plugin on the resident computer, that’s not good any how you look at it. It simply means I couldn’t pick up my laptop and watch videos off you tube, before partial HTML5 integrations, without installing proprietary software from Adobe. HTML browsers on mobile phones are restricted from full benefits of the web experience because until very much recently phone browsers ‘did not’ have a dedicated flash plugin from Adobe. And why they took so long to put out flash for smartphone browsers I have no idea. I’m not going to talk about the many transgressions of Adobe here but you get the general idea.
We don’t want ‘Internet Explorer’ type upgrades, share unreliability, and proprietary closeness on a program that controls 95% of internet video.
What makes HTML 5 special?
Come to think of it there’s not much ground-breaking technology bundled on the expected final version of HTML 5 because most of its touted features – drag n drop, offline web storage, editable content, two videos playing in sync, offline detection, on/offline event tests, geo location, video/audio support, cross-document messaging, form controls (dates, times, email, url) – are supported on a range of proprietary plugins available to users the most prevalently user being Google Gears, Microsoft Silverlight, Adobe Flash.
HTML 5 takes away many of the code overlaps inherent in the HTML 4. Purely presentational elements such as <font>, <strike> and <center> are already a part of CSS syntax and should be used from there not HTML. The new language adds a good number of elements – “article , audio, canvas, command, datalist, details, embed, figcaption, figure, footer, header, , keygen, mark, , nav, output, progress, section, source, summary, time, video,” that bring on a long list of potential use cases enough to be excited about its prospects.
Embedding audio and video in a page with no use of a plugin draws a lot of benefits. I don’t have to install anything to watch web videos on a brand new laptop, my mobile phone has a better chance of watching web videos plus as an Apple iPhone/iPad/iPod touch user I couldn’t care much for Flash since it’s not supported and wouldn’t be in at least 2 decades. After installing the Flash 10.1 player on my EVO 4G, I testify to the lackluster attention Adobe paid to its design. A flash video on my phone has almost always leads to browser unresponsiveness, creakiness, crashes and a sheer embarrassment to an otherwise smooth browsing experience.
I stray to wonder why Google refuses to bar Adobe Flash from the Android to prevent users from this torment, but I then remember its open-source commitment with a no-limits no-interruptions policy and I’m back to my world.
Is HTML 5 set for a takeover?
Quite simply, No. The HTML 5 is not yet finished article. Much of the work is done but with few potentially cross-roads issues that need solving. First is the lack of full-screen video playback, I doubt this is really a problem and we’ll see a complete solution in coming months. Next is the more worrisome non-agreement on the exact video codec HTML 5 should support. The basic idea behind the proposed HTML 5 video is to have a unified video format integrated into all compatible web browsers – that’s the only way a video solution could conceptually replace the use for Flash for video playback.
Firefox is heavily behind the .ogg codec, Apple has stuck to the H.264 codec. Google is somewhere in the middle but its actions on Chrome prove it is inclining towards support for H.264, maybe not for long. For while the H.264 appears to be an open standard, it actually is not. It’s governed by the MPEG-LA consortium with patents, royalty and license requirements to be imposed starting 2014. Now, that’s a huge setback defeating the purpose of a fully supported open video codec.
The rumor mills from Google imply that they’re working on a new video format under the open license. This could be the solution to the present wrangling in-house.
Would HTML 5 replace Flash in 5 years? probably not. In 10 years? maybe. I have a feeling Flash would become irrelevant after 10 years unless Adobe engineers come up with something really creative on future Flash releases.
