Why shouldn't I use Flash?

Question

I\'ve heard many times that I should avoid flash for my website. Yet no one has told me a good reason for this. I\'ve searched for reasons and I see many that are not true (such

Answer 1

Nobody mentioned this one yet:

• because of Adobe's abysmal security track record (major reason invoked by Apple btw)

In my view it's an insecure underperforming clumsy proprietary product that anyway won't work on the millions of iPhone/iPad out there.

Heck, I didn't even bother to install Flash on my Linux workstation (and, no, I don't watch youtube videos on my workstation ;)

Anyway, HTML5 is here and it's here to stay and it makes Flash even less compelling.

Answer 2

If it's just to play back some audio, I'd say it's an acceptable use of Flash. At least until IE catches up with the present and implements <audio>. Video is also fine, at least for the moment.

Just don't create your entire website in Flash. They're hard to use and that should be enough not to make Flash websites.

Answer 3

If you are just using it to play audio, I would stick with it. It works for that and has been around for a while (I mean, it's not the greatest thing ever, but it does work).

If you are thinking of designing an entire site in Flash, I would advise against that, as you have then totally eliminated mobile devices.

Answer 4

Aside of the fact that iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad don't support flash which you've already mentioned, there is also the fact that many users have flash disabled to prevent being shown advertisements (a common use of flash).

Answer 5

While accessiblity, propriety, speed and search friendliness all are valid concerns for flash use, they are style choices. Preferences. Decorative. Let's face it, flash does make somethings easier to do.

The deal-breaker: when you use Flash you expose your users to very serious security concerns. Safety first.

Answer 6

Flash is annoying because:

• Users have to have the plugin
• Context menus don't work right (you get the Flash context menu instead of the browser's)
• Mouse gestures fail when started over a Flash object

For audio, I'd say Flash is probably the best cross-platform method though. If you're really hardcore, you could nest it inside an <audio> tag, so that people with a non-IE browser don't need Flash. I believe it works something like:

<audio $attributes>
    <embed $attributes />
</audio>

Any browser that understands the <audio> tag should ignore anything inside it.

Disclaimer: It's probably not worth the effort. Everyone has Flash, and as long as you're not using it for your layout, you should be fine.