War settles nothing. To win a war is as disastrous as to lose one - Agatha Christie
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Apple has a secret Flash replacement plan
CLOSED SOFTWARE SELLER Apple's attack on Adobe Flash might not have been a defence of open standards or a shift to HTML5 but because it is planning to release some closed technology of its own to replace Flash.
Apple is apparently developing a software technology called Gianduia that it introduced last summer at its World of Webobjects Developer Conference.
According to AppleInsider, Jobs' Mob described the software as "a client-side, standards-based framework for rich Internet apps."
Apple has apparently been using Gianduia in several of its retail support systems, including services such as the One to One program, the Iphone reservation system, and the Concierge program for Genius Bar and Personal Shopping reservations.
Apple introduced Gianduia long before its war with Adobe kicked off. If it wanted to have a product to replace Flash then that probably was the last you would hear about it until the thing was released.
Apple has made it very clear that it opted to support HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS instead of Flash. But that might all be spin. Soon it might start pushing Gianduia instead under the pretext that HTML5 is not ready whereas Gianduia is.
Gianduia is an Italian hazelnut chocolate, which is quite appropriate for something that is at its core nutty. As proprietary software like the Vole's Silverlight, it will be a "browser-side Cocoa (including CoreData) [plus] Webobjects, written in JavaScript".
Of course bringing out a new product that will compete with Flash would be impossible unless you had mounted a huge media assault that cut the product off at the knees first. Ambitious, but given Apple's control of the media it is possible. µ
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@Ray Carling, what tiny bit of credibility you had you've blown completely with that post.
WebKit is the core HTML rendering engine that Safari uses. It's the guts and most important part of the application. Not being able to mess with the design of the Safari GUI doesn't mean that the most important parts of it aren't open source.
Adobe AIR is a wrapper that lets you run Flash applications OUTSIDE of a web browser. They do this by basically providing their own browser environment, for which they use WebKit. Adobe don't use WebKit in the regular Flash player as there is no need.
You can't download the specification of a compiled Flash binary, which any developer would need to write their own compiler or player. I'll say this again - if it WAS publicly documented then the Linux boys at least would have written their own player (Adobe's Linux player sucks big time). The ONLY part of Flash that is documented is the ActionScript language, and that isn't enough to roll your own player.
@some dude, it would seem that you can get a version of the Flash compiler for free. The question you have therefore to ask is why are all those idiots paying Adobe for the commercial version?
Safari isn't open source, which is what you conceded yourself, albeit with a great many words.
If Adobe Flash Player uses Webkit, it's even more reason why there's nothing stopping Apple from making their own Flash player. Flash is open, Apple can download the full spec and implement it natively in Safari without paying Adobe a single penny.
With FlashDevelop you don't need to buy anything, you just need the FREE flex sdk framework/compiler. You can alternatley use the Flash IDE compiler which would require buying flash.
have been out in force.
Firstly @Daryl Quenet if you don't need to develop Flash code then you can either buy a much cheaper set of Adobe tools or there are many third party tools that are much better value for money.
Next @some dude, you don't need a Mac for completed packages. You can deploy them pretty much on any Java server of your choice. I guess you forgot to read the install instructions for the "free" Flash IDE you linked to. You might have found this section:
"Installing Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is licensed software, so you may first need to purchase a copy through Adobe or a software reseller"
They are trying to provide you with a better IDE, not make Flash development free.
@Ray Carling, Flash is open? What HAVE you been smoking? It very much ISN'T open. It's only managed to become a de-facto standard by dint of it solving a problem in HTML (namely video playback), and it's very firmly controlled by Adobe. If it was an open standard then the lads over in Linux land would have written their own Flash players by now that would have solved their problems with Adobe's offering.
The core of Safari is WebKit, which IS open source and is very popular among other browser authors (it's used by Chrome, Android, Symbian S60 and, surprisingly, by Adobe in AIR among others).
Apple's attitude to the web has consistently been to push for open standard where everyone can compete. Adobe are definitely not in favour of this.
Don't worry. This isn't your site so you won't be getting pissed off, nor need to think about anyone getting sacked.
Take care.
xx
I hope the Editor is thinking about firing this lazy mofo. I would be pissed off if it was my site and advertising went down the drain because the content is idiotic.
wait till you start making rich media elements with Javascript....
the great thing about flash is that it eliminates the browser from the equation. The browser is the root of our problems, not Flash, people.
We already have an open and standard technology. It's called Flash.
Apple just want to be in Adobe's shoes. There's nothing stopping them writing their own Flash player, just as Microsoft wrote their own JRE. All the documentation's there, and they already have the licences (such as h.264 or JPEG decoding).
Let's see if this new Apple thing is any more open source or open to influence by outside developers (as most open source project are) than Safari's managed to be...
@Steve, buying a $799 Mac does not get WebObjects onto your dev/staging/production servers.
There are free opensource flash development IDEs:
http://www.flashdevelop.org/wikidocs/index.php?title=FlashDevelop:About
Also the flash compiler and sdk are free. The framework source code(excluding packages in the native namespace) are completely open:
http://opensource.adobe.com/wiki/display/flexsdk/Downloads
You could download and try them out right now, but alas you will spend your time accusing others of both hate and stupidity.
What does buying a $799 Mac have to do with saving money instead of buying CS5?! If your a web developer on either Windows or Mac there is no software that is as good as CS5 for Designing a website, Branding, or Developing a website especially for a project that requires all 3. Regardless of platform in the world of web development it is the defacto standard and I have worked at several development companies that require knowledge of at least DW CS5. Don't forget you do need to write your HTML5 / JS web applications in something and a text editor is just a silly idea for purists who end up writing mediocre code because they aren't willing to embrace better workflow.
Thank you for that classic example of both hate and stupidity. Adobe CS5 Web Premium costs $1799. A mid spec Mac Mini costs $799. Who the heck cares that it's not top of the range, its more than good enough to do the job and saves you $1000. You could even save cash buying an upper end iMac - the 27" 3.06GHz Core 2 model is still only $1699.
The whole point of Gianduia is that it doesn't need HTML5. Any browser that can run javascript should be able to run code written using it.
Apple knows that DESKTOP operating systems are going to die out, or at least die back to some extent. They want a piece of the web based marketplace, and they want web browsers to be based on standard and open technologies. Is that such a horrible idea?
If you buy CS5, you don't *need* to buy an entry-level Mac. What you get with Flash on your PC is what poor Mac users get in their intriguing apparatus.
Flash works. HTML5 doesn't, yet. And even if it did, you still don't need a Mac. Opera and Firefox should render the same on Macs, and any standards compliant Mac browser should do the same as an equally compliant PC browser.
Apple knows that Mac OS is dead in the water. They know the future is one where the web is the platform for the most commonly used apps. This is them trying to get control of that platform early. They will fail. As the last 30+ years has shows us, people will look at what they've done, think it very interesting, and then go away and make a mainstream version that's actually a success and used by the masses.
I wouldn't even know how to switch a Mac on or off.
hate and stupidity in one place.
Firstly @hmmmm, it's not the only javascript framework on the market and there's little chance that application users would have to pay to use it (if they do then developers are highly unlikely to chose it). Whatever Apple offer it has to be attractive to developers in comparison to Flash. If it's not they won't get many takers.
If users don't have to pay to use it, why should they care what the heck an application is written in (other than is it reliable and does it run on their platform)?
@some dude, WebObjects is a free development tool for anyone who has a Mac. The cost of buying an entry level mac is less than buying Adobe CS5 for Flash development. You can deploy completed WebObjects applications on any Java host you like (Windows, Linux or what-have-you). Why should developers be upset by this?
Fanboys, Webobjects (probably required to do anything interesting with Gianduia) is not free or opensource.
You apple fanbois get really silly. Of course it is HTML 5 it is Apple's unique product which you will all pay for and be required use for all your web browsing needs. In otherwords Apple is forcing you to buy its product rather than flash. You would go berko if you had to buy silverlight
Gianduia is html5 and javascipt as a "journalist" you would think he would have read more then just the title of the article he references.
This site is a joke. Please go away and taking up cyberspace.
This is an open framework entirely based on open standards JS and HTML5. No plugins required. Please research your topic before you post erroneous information.
So all the wonderful, shiny, fruity videos will only be visible on wonderful, shiny, fruity hardware/software platforms.
Of course, that means that all fanbois will produce their marvelous output only to that platform, and leave the dirty, gritty, common Flash platform to us plebs.
Fine by me.
Nick IS the laziest and most useless "journalist" of all time. If he'd been bothered to read the article he linked (which is far from the first thing that has been said in public on the technology - you can see Apple devs talking about it in November last year here http://lists.apple.com/archives/webobjects-dev/2009/Nov/msg00296.html ) then he'd find that it's a technology that runs on standard HTML/javascript browsers without a plugin.
It's basically a stack of javascript classes to simplify developing rich client applications in a browser environment. Nothing there is anti-standards or equivalent to flash. It does however shoot down Adobe's assertion that you need their technology to write run-anywhere web applications.
And maintains the chocolate-flavour theme.
On the other hand it could be like "Windows CE" which was and is "This is not by any means Windows but there is a superficial resemblance".