Hey Flash Haters

I understand some people don't like Flash. That's fine.

But please stop using the "Punch the Monkey" ads from like TEN YEARS AGO as your example of why the web doesn't need Flash.

I was just listening to MacBreak Weekly episode 161 and they used that to justify that the web is just better off without Flash.

But here's the thing: People are using Flash to do lots of things, things that they want to do. If HTML 5 does take off and people start using HTML 5 to do the things Flash is doing, then HTML 5 will take on the negative aspects that people attribute to the Flash player.

Flash apps can be slow, use a lot of CPU, and kill your battery. Why is that? Because it's a runtime. It runs the code that the developer writes, and if the developer writes code that runs slowly, uses a lot of CPU and kills your battery, then that's what you get.

If you take a web designer who is used to building ads in Flash and ask them to build ads that run in HTML 5, they'll find a way to do it. And there's a good chance they'll still be slow, use a lot of CPU and kill your battery.

Then what? Will you want browsers to turn off HTML 5?