AfterDawn: News

Steve Jobs rips Flash as dying 'CPU hog'

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has reportedly taken the opportunity to diss Adobe Flash technology again. Several weeks ago, after the iPad was unveiled by Apple, Adobe kicked up a fuss about the lack of Flash support with the product and released information on what iPad users would miss out on without it.

During a recent trip by Jobs - courting newspaper publishers with an iPad in hand - Steve spoke to some Wall Street Journal staff about Adobe's Flash technology. He told the staff that he dislikes flash technology because it crashes Macs due to its bugs, and that it is a CPU hog when it is in use.



He went on to point out that Flash is a source of security holes - which is true when Internet users do not keep their Flash add-on up to the latest version for sure. He compared the iPad's lack of Flash support to the dropping of floppy drives from Macs, as well as legacy data ports and other "dying technologies".

In recent weeks, Adobe has attempted to re-assure users about the performance of its software, noting that Flash 10.1 should deliver significant improvements over older versions. Steve Jobs however feels that its time for Flash to replaced on the web with Javascript, H.264 video and other alternatives to the Flash technology.

Written by: James Delahunty @ 20 Feb 2010 6:29

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• 19 comments

• Josipher

  hate the man, agrees with his views on flash

  20.2.2010 08:58 #1

• i1der

  when they drop floppy and LD other technology already existed... Nothing replaces flash as of right now, so he is trading flash for nothing... Job is just an Ass*** if is not supported by him is not good, just like multitask. But its always idiots that dont give a shit and buy anything that apple make.

  20.2.2010 09:26 #2

• blueboy09

  That maybe true, but Flash is still around and kicking no matter what his opinion about Flash is, and it will be for a while, but not forever. Jobs is full of piss and wind, and is blowing steam out of his mouth and ears, that's all. Move along, people, move along!!
  

  Life is about walking on thin ice, if you make too much drama, youll crack under pressure. - BLUEBOY

  20.2.2010 09:39 #3

• Scaldari

  at least he did not try to plug quicktime ***UGH***
  isnt youtube flash based?

  20.2.2010 11:10 #4

• keith1993

  Originally posted by Steve Jobs: He told the staff that he dislikes flash technology because it crashes Macs due to its bugs, and that it is a CPU hog when it is in use.I can't remember the last time Flash crashed on Windows or PSP or PS3 or Linux or my phone or my MP3 player. Perhaps the fault lies elsewhere?
  
  CPU hog eh? I can stream 720p off Youtube and Chrome uses 20%~ CPU and playing H.264 720p video off my hard drive using Quicktime is about the same if not more. However playing the same H.264 video WMP uses 35%~ before dropping (after a matter of seconds) to 3%~
  
  Maybe Jobs should stop taking 'trips' and clean up his own mess.
  
  Also didn't Apple drop Floppies because they didn't support DRM? :P

  20.2.2010 12:24 #5

• cyprusrom

  Steve Jobs is a douche nozzle, and all the stupid choices he makes would not be possible without the aid of a bunch of zombie funboys that buy everything he throws out, even when is an utterly worthless piece of junk.
  Maybe flash will be extinct in the years to come, but people want to use their devices NOW, not after 2012(when it wouldn't matter anyway, right:)!)
  I never had my Windoze crash because of Flash...Maybe because is not running on a crApple product.

  20.2.2010 12:52 #6

• zdiggler

  Flash Video sucks no doubt but Flash Games are the real reason they hates flash.

  20.2.2010 12:53 #7

• Josipher

  Originally posted by i1der: when they drop floppy and LD other technology already existed... Nothing replaces flash as of right now, so he is trading flash for nothing... Job is just an Ass*** if is not supported by him is not good, just like multitask. But its always idiots that dont give a shit and buy anything that apple make.
  u missed one "*"

  20.2.2010 16:52 #8

• Amak

  Flash uses minimal resources (my CPU stays at 1.2 GHz out of 2.1 GHz easy) and the security issues comes from lack of updating. Jobs is just talking outta his ass and continuing the whole "Macs are invulnerable!" BS.

  20.2.2010 17:24 #9

• tatsh

  I am with the move. Safari is Webkit-based (derived from Konqueror's KHTML, etc etc). It supports HTML5 <video> and <audio> tags. It supports graphics accelerated <canvas> (useful for games). The JavaScript engine is also very fast on WebKit. The amount of time it would take for someone to code something up in Flash in comparison to making the same thing with DHTML/AJAX/SVG/JavaScript etc is extremely similar nowadays. I hope this pushes more development of dynamic web sites with STANDARD, non-plugin technologies like those mentioned. I absolutely love the thought of new games being made with SVG and JavaScript instead of Flash, or use of the <canvas> tag and JavaScript.
  
  Here are some cool things that may convince some of you Flash-proponents:
  http://www.uselesspickles.com/triangles/demo.html <-- let's accelerate divs too, Google!
  http://jim.studt.net/canvastext/ <-- indeed it is possible to have decent text in the <canvas> tag
  http://www.benjoffe.com/code/ <-- lots of cool ideas and a few games using <canvas>
  http://www.canvasdemos.com/ <-- of course
  
  When it comes to video, h.264 is supported in Chrome (and probably will be if not already in Safari). Check out HTML5 Youtube. Audio is to be AAC, AC3, and some others (Firefox will only support royalty-free formats like Theora/Vorbis). Microsoft can come on-board or not (of course they want VC-1 and WMA); Apple and Google could not care less. The end of Flash is nigh!

  20.2.2010 22:25 #10

• cyprusrom

  Originally posted by tatsh: I am with the move. Safari is Webkit-based (derived from Konqueror's KHTML, etc etc). It supports HTML5 <video> and <audio> tags. It supports graphics accelerated <canvas> (useful for games). The JavaScript engine is also very fast on WebKit. The amount of time it would take for someone to code something up in Flash in comparison to making the same thing with DHTML/AJAX/SVG/JavaScript etc is extremely similar nowadays. I hope this pushes more development of dynamic web sites with STANDARD, non-plugin technologies like those mentioned. I absolutely love the thought of new games being made with SVG and JavaScript instead of Flash, or use of the <canvas> tag and JavaScript.
  
  Here are some cool things that may convince some of you Flash-proponents:
  http://www.uselesspickles.com/triangles/demo.html <-- let's accelerate divs too, Google!
  http://jim.studt.net/canvastext/ <-- indeed it is possible to have decent text in the <canvas> tag
  http://www.benjoffe.com/code/ <-- lots of cool ideas and a few games using <canvas>
  http://www.canvasdemos.com/ <-- of course
  
  When it comes to video, h.264 is supported in Chrome (and probably will be if not already in Safari). Check out HTML5 Youtube. Audio is to be AAC, AC3, and some others (Firefox will only support royalty-free formats like Theora/Vorbis). Microsoft can come on-board or not (of course they want VC-1 and WMA); Apple and Google could not care less. The end of Flash is nigh!
  Is not about which one is better, obviously H.264 video or html5 is better, but how is that useful for consumers if they cannot get the most of their gadgets NOW? Not making flash available on the devices NOW, just because something better might become mainstream in a couple of years is as stupid as it gets.

  20.2.2010 22:31 #11

• llongtheD

  You'd think at the price they're charging for the drm-pad, they could have built it with the ability to handle common software like flash.
  Maybe if the drm-pads cpu wasn't so busy trying to discern if you were a pirate, and "phoning home" it could run it.
  

  If your fish seems sick, put it back in the water.

  21.2.2010 00:42 #12

• 20TONS

  F Crapple.

  21.2.2010 04:15 #13

• arunie

  As a long time web developer, I understand and agree with Jobs. I'm a fan of how Apple is usually ahead of the curve, but hate how they limit their options to the consumers. The same scenario again. JS and H.264 video is a LOT better than flash in terms of resources being used, not to mention they would load much faster as well. Even though I can see where he is coming from and agree with that part, the whole concept of delivering a product is to make the end user happy. So the bottom line is that the consumer should be able to do what they want...and if that means they want flash, well Apple, you should support it. Give the customer the option of choosing what they want, not what the company wants.

  25.2.2010 10:41 #14

• IguanaC64

  My son will enjoy playing his Super Mario H.264 games in the Apple future universe.
  
  Oh wait...that's a video format...not a graphics/programming platform...

  25.2.2010 10:58 #15

• cyprusrom

  Originally posted by IguanaC64: My son will enjoy playing his Super Mario H.264 games in the Apple future universe.
  
  Oh wait...that's a video format...not a graphics/programming platform...
  LOLz:)

  25.2.2010 16:22 #16

• xnonsuchx

  Originally posted by Amak: Flash uses minimal resources (my CPU stays at 1.2 GHz out of 2.1 GHz easy) and the security issues comes from lack of updating. Jobs is just talking outta his ass and continuing the whole "Macs are invulnerable!" BS.Well-done Flash can be quite resource-friendly...but a lot of the complex Flash out there on myriads of sites go unnecessarily overboard. I think that the resource issue is more of a problem w/ content creators than Flash itself and think ANY current well-powered browser device should support it.

  25.2.2010 21:49 #17

• gfxeditor

  SPAM removed

  10.4.2010 15:48 #18

• Florian Schommertz (unverified)

  Yes, Flash is dying.
  
  Just use 'google trends' to get the proof.
  
  Try 'actionscript' instead of 'Flash' because the discussion about Flash is to big.
  
  When looking up global interest in 'actionscript' you really see into the minds of former flash developers (and designers who need flash actionscript help) - they start abandon it.

  6.9.2010 06:04 #19