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Stop Crashing My Browser

So it occurs to me that the Flash Team is really, really mystified as to why people hate flash.

They think it's some kind of "Oh, it's cool to hate Flash" or "It's just iPhone fanbois" thing. This is of course wrong, and somewhat mystifying. However, when someone doesn't get the point, there is an extremely effective technique to fix that. State your point clearly, concisely, and repeat it like you were driving a nail into a board.

So here is the point we need to drive home to the Flash team:

"Stop Crashing My Browser"

They have to make that plugin not crash browsers. The problem isn't with Flash content, because as a few experiments show that flash files running in a browser, yet outside of that plugin don't kill your browser. It's not the content. The problem is the plugin crashing our browsers.

Stop Crashing My Browser.

The problem isn't with overuse or abuse of Flash. While Adobe encourages this, at the end of the day, the ultimate arbiters in whether to use Flash or not are the people building and running the web site, not Adobe. Getting into weedy discussions about Flasturbation may be fun, but that's not the problem. The problem is the plugin crashing our browsers.

Stop Crashing My Browser.

Those caring deeply about open standards and Adobe trying to turn the web into a walled garden by publishing the spec, but owning the playback mechanism are not wrong, but that is a different issue. This issue is simple and clearly focused.

Stop Crashing My Browser.

It's about stopping Flash from being one of, if not the leading cause(s) of browser crash reports for every company or group making a browser.

Stop Crashing My Browser.

It is about a Flash-heavy site being, effectively, a rather efficient DOS attack against every browser out there.

Stop Crashing My Browser.

It is about a plugin that does so much harm to just viewing a web page, that Google had to come up with an entirely new architecture to run plugins so that "plugins" wouldn't crash your browser. We know what they meant by that. They meant Flash. Even the Acrobat PDF plugin doesn't lock up your browser like Flash does.

Stop Crashing My Browser.

It is about letting the "Fingers In Our Ears Gang" that is the Adobe Flash Team, including their head muppet, John Dowdell know that they can list off Exciting New Features until the end of time, but no one cares. We care about one thing:

Stop Crashing My Browser.

If someone else from Adobe, such as John Nack posts some asinine defense of Flash, the only comment they should see is:

"We don't care. Stop Crashing My Browser."

Oh, and we include in this uber-model dialogs that lock up your browser to warn you about scripts running slowly. That is not something the user ever needs to care about.

So it's simple. If you have direct contact with the Flash Team, regularly or not, send them this message, every time you talk to them:

Stop Crashing My Browser.

If you communicate them via Email, Twitter, or Comments on a web page, send them this message over and over, (use some fucking sense. Don't be an ass and mail/twit-bomb them):

Stop Crashing My Browser.

Don't mess with non-Adobe Flash people. This is not their fault, they don't make the plugin. Adobe does, so Adobe can just fix it, or put up with

Stop Crashing My Browser.

Until they want to defenestrate themselves to make it stop. If you have a paper fetish, and lots of stamp money, send them post cards with

Stop Crashing My Browser.

written on it, "Stop Crashing My Browser." origami, whatever, (If you're rich, talented and have a lot of time and money to waste, what the hell, send them a nice metal sculpture that reads "Stop Crashing My Browser.") Be polite, but be insistent, (I can handle the rude folks, I'm good at it enough for everyone.) If someone from the Flash team tries to talk about exciting new features, politely cut them off and inform them that such discussions are tabled until such time as Flash Stops Crashing My Browser.

If you are in IT, and can do so without causing your users real problems, (their needs come first), make ClickToFlash, or whatever is appropriate for Windows & Linux a part of your standard machine image, and then email the Flash team to let them see the actual numbers, so it's harder for them to dismiss this. If you are not on a Mac and hate that plugin, then let the Flash team know that, so they can't dismiss it as a MacMac thing. If you are considering moving your RIA development to Silverlight, and complaints from your users/customers about Flash crashing their browsers have anything to do with that decision, let the Flash team know this, so they can see their delay in this area is going to cause them real actual problems.

Stop Crashing My Browser.

When Flash does stop crashing our browsers, or we don't need that plugin any more, then we can care about anything else the Flash team has to say. But until then:

Stop Crashing My Browser.

It's the only message they need to hear.

Categories: Adobe

Posted by John C. Welch at 08:54 | Permalink

Comments

Warning for Notes users: The commenting system uses HTML.
I know this will be scary for some of you, especially Notes fans. However, open standards, rah-rah.
If you want to use less-than or greater-than signs, or other similar charachters that HTML reserves,
you'll simply have to learn to do it the HTML way. Luckily, HTML is kind of popular, no matter what
your re-educators have told you, and you can easily find help on the intertubes.

So it occurs to me that the Flash Team is really, really mystified as to why people hate flash.\n\nThey think it's some kind of \"Oh, it's cool to hate Flash\" or \"It's just iPhone fanbois\" thing. This is of course wrong, and somewhat mystifying. However, when someone doesn't get the point, there is an extremely effective technique to fix that. State your point clearly, concisely, and repeat it like you were driving a nail into a board. \n\nSo here is the point we need to drive home to the Flash team:\n\n\"Stop Crashing My Browser\"\n\nThey have to make that plugin not crash browsers. The problem isn't with Flash content, because as a few experiments show that flash files running in a browser, yet outside of that plugin don't kill your browser. It's not the content. The problem is the plugin crashing our browsers.\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nThe problem isn't with overuse or abuse of Flash. While Adobe encourages this, at the end of the day, the ultimate arbiters in whether to use Flash or not are the people building and running the web site, not Adobe. Getting into weedy discussions about Flasturbation may be fun, but that's not the problem. The problem is the plugin crashing our browsers.\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nThose caring deeply about open standards and Adobe trying to turn the web into a walled garden by publishing the spec, but owning the playback mechanism are not wrong, but that is a different issue. This issue is simple and clearly focused.\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nIt's about stopping Flash from being one of, if not the leading cause(s) of browser crash reports for every company or group making a browser.\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nIt is about a Flash-heavy site being, effectively, a rather efficient DOS attack against every browser out there.\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nIt is about a plugin that does so much harm to just viewing a web page, that Google had to come up with an entirely new architecture to run plugins so that \"plugins\" wouldn't crash your browser. We know what they meant by that. They meant Flash. Even the Acrobat PDF plugin doesn't lock up your browser like Flash does.\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nIt is about letting the \"Fingers In Our Ears Gang\" that is the Adobe Flash Team, including their head muppet, John Dowdell know that they can list off Exciting New Features until the end of time, but no one cares. We care about one thing:\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nIf someone else from Adobe, such as John Nack posts some asinine defense of Flash, the only comment they should see is:\n\n\"We don't care. Stop Crashing My Browser.\"\n\nOh, and we include in this uber-model dialogs that lock up your browser to warn you about scripts running slowly. That is not something the user ever needs to care about. \n\nSo it's simple. If you have direct contact with the Flash Team, regularly or not, send them this message, every time you talk to them:\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nIf you communicate them via Email, Twitter, or Comments on a web page, send them this message over and over, (use some fucking sense. Don't be an ass and mail/twit-bomb them):\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nDon't mess with non-Adobe Flash people. This is not their fault, they don't make the plugin. Adobe does, so Adobe can just fix it, or put up with \n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nUntil they want to defenestrate themselves to make it stop. If you have a paper fetish, and lots of stamp money, send them post cards with \n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nwritten on it, \"Stop Crashing My Browser.\" origami, whatever, (If you're rich, talented and have a lot of time and money to waste, what the hell, send them a nice metal sculpture that reads \"Stop Crashing My Browser.\") Be polite, but be insistent, (I can handle the rude folks, I'm good at it enough for everyone.) If someone from the Flash team tries to talk about exciting new features, politely cut them off and inform them that such discussions are tabled until such time as Flash Stops Crashing My Browser.\n\nIf you are in IT, and can do so without causing your users real problems, (their needs come first), make ClickToFlash, or whatever is appropriate for Windows & Linux a part of your standard machine image, and then email the Flash team to let them see the actual numbers, so it's harder for them to dismiss this. If you are not on a Mac and hate that plugin, then let the Flash team know that, so they can't dismiss it as a MacMac thing. If you are considering moving your RIA development to Silverlight, and complaints from your users/customers about Flash crashing their browsers have anything to do with that decision, let the Flash team know this, so they can see their delay in this area is going to cause them real actual problems.\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nWhen Flash does stop crashing our browsers, or we don't need that plugin any more, then we can care about anything else the Flash team has to say. But until then:\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nStop Crashing My Browser.\n\nIt's the only message they need to hear.