In the early stages of the internet, video content was uncommon and basic. Web browsers were simple, unsophisticated and unable to handle media such as video. To meet the need for additional content displayed in web browsers, plug-ins like Flash were created. Flash worked and thats all anyone cared about.
Then along came Steve Jobs. He saw the world differently and was the ultimate perfectionist. Flash, in his opinion, was poorly written and insecure. As far as he was concerned, such an ugly program would never contaminate a Mac. Furthermore, he had just created the iPhone which was touch based. I give Steve Jobs credit for sticking to his beliefs. He refused to bow to the pressure of the masses and saw a better way forward. Build video capabilities directly into the browser! At the time, it was unclear whether not including Flash in iPhones would be a huge mistake. Time has proven Jobs to be correct as the entire industry has come to his same conclusions and removed Flash from their products.
Currently, video creation can be created by Animate and Dreamweaver. Although Dreamweaver can handle this task, I feel that dedicated programs such as Animate are useful and should be continued. I feel this way because programs that try to “do it all” frequently become “Jacks of all trades, masters of none”. Animate can focus on media creation only. Although it could be viewed as a “Zombie Flash”, the fact that it uses current technology (HTML5/CSS3/JD) I prefer to view it more as “Flash 2.0”.
Like all things in life, things change. This is especially true in areas such as technology. Hopefully, these changes occur gradually thus allowing professionals in the field to keep up and adapt. Mourning the loss of outdated programs is unproductive…imagine if we were still coding in “Basic”. I’m sure that there were plenty of experts in that language that were upset to see it go.
Finally, I sympathize with those that value the past and wish to preserve it. There is a rich catalog of games written in Flash that will become unusable if the program disappears from existence. Making it an open source project seems like the perfect solution. Let modders take a crack at it!