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Are YOU Losing Out While Adobe & Microsoft Fight?
It’s no secret that Adobe and Microsoft have been battling it out for eons, each one trying to gain dominance of the Internet through their various competing web software technologies. At face value it may seem that you stand to benefit, whatever the outcome, but is it really so? Or is the gigantic squabble between the two lumbering giants spelling out a giant headache for you?
Think of it this way…
If you were in a small closed-off field with two heavyweight Spanish fighting bulls and both of them were calm and peaceful, there wouldn’t be much of a problem. But if those two heavyweight bulls decided to fight each other, all that heavy charging and crashing around would be very dangerous for you and you couldn’t be sure of your safety in the final outcome.
Is the Adobe versus Microsoft Internet battle squaring up to be a bit like that for you?
I think it is!
Adobe’s Flash technology has been around for a long time. It’s served the web well, but now there’s a new kid on the Internet block muscling in – Microsoft’s Silverlight.
NBC used Silverlight on their site for the coverage of the recent Beijing Olympics when they screened more than 2,000 hours of sporting video. Over 40 million people downloaded the Silverlight browser plugin needed to watch NBC’s video coverage of the games.
At a time when millions were eager to watch something extremely important to them, should they have been forced to get to grips with a new and unfamiliar technology?
It’s true that Silverlight’s video handling meant that four video playback screens could be accessed simultaneously, and with commentary too. Maybe that made it worth the hassle, for some at least.
Britain’s BBC dumped Microsoft’s technology in favor of Adobe’s about a year ago. Adobe gave the BBC their undivided attention for three full months to ensure a successful rollout, and it worked too. The BBC increased its viewership by a factor of eight and visitors now hang around the site five times longer on average than they did before.
Yippee for the BBC, but the poor lonely web surfer has to struggle with one technology one day and another completely different technology the next. It’s plain confusing! Does being pushed from pillar to post improve your Internet experience? I don’t think it does.
I don’t blame sites like NBC and the BBC for changing to the latest and greatest. They have a duty to serve their loyal followers. I just question if, by bowing to the whims of the Big Boys, they actually are serving their loyal followers in a way their followers deserve to be served!
Maybe you and the Internet would be better served all round if this perpetual puerile push and pull for dominance by Adobe and Microsoft wasn’t happening.
Being prompted to download a plugin or program in order to view or listen to media is irritating at best. The experience is no longer smooth and seamless when you have to concern yourself with changing technology issues. Yet this is the situation that the Adobe versus Microsoft Internet squabble has placed you in. They are putting a stranglehold on YOUR Internet, and the irony is this: you are letting them!
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This sucks. I’ve been following it for a while. I envision constant downloads and upgrades… not to mention security leaks and patches. Ug!!!
“Think of it this way… If you were in a small closed-off field with two heavyweight Spanish fighting bulls and both of them were calm and peaceful….”
No, let’s think of it this way, there’s a cross-galactic canteen with many species of aliens happily carousing, and then…..
(It may be more useful to think of the current trends as everyone now acknowledging that rich-media interactivity is useful, with the big challenge being achieving runtime support on the audience’s choice of devices.)
jd/adobe
LOL JD, nice.
Adobe has been an asset to us all so far. I just hope that your business model doesn’t change. This worries me:
John Lilly, chief executive of the open-source Web browser firm Mozilla, says both Adobe and Microsoft are “aiming to create a tax and a moat around the Web. These technologies raise barriers to innovation, because developers are forced to go through closed systems and pay for it.”
Source: Forbes
heh, glad the smiley came through, for some reason I associate Ferdinand the Bull with Star Wars, I guess….
Mozilla folks have stated a lot of strange things. But they’re still an important part of our total digital ecology, so Adobe tries to build bridges. My tip: Ignore their abstract characterizations, and focus on what specific evidence they bring to bear. (I suspect they’re rallying their base with such red meat, but do hope they do better.)
jd/adobe
Adobe v/s Microsoft – Who\’s the Loser? YOU! | nerdd.net…
\r\nGet ready for Silverlight and Flash to turn the web into an annoying series of downloads.\r\nBei…
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