New MacBook Airs Are Shipping Without Flash

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the Tom's Hardware community: where nearly two million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Status
Not open for further replies.
[citation][nom]mrmez[/nom]And to the guys who say Apple are "hurting themselves" Take a look at the numbers: They are 10x smaller in the computer market then MS but make the same money. Yeah, they are REALLY suffering.[/citation]
Take away Apple's revenue from iPhones, iPods and their App store, and then tell me how much revenue they make.
 
Don't care. And none of you people would care if HP, Dell, Sony, or any other PC maker was doing the exact same thing. I have flash blockers on any browser I use. Flash sucks. Apple is doing what I do on my own. Who cares.
 
I'm more surprised that they ever shipped computers with flash installed. Windows doesn't come with it, nor do any of the popular linux distros I've used. The reason of making people get an up to date version sounds stupid though. I would think a better reason would be some people might not want flash. I always install it but nothing wrong with having the choice. If the OS still supports flash, it sounds like a non-issue to me.
 
[citation][nom]cashews[/nom]Take away Apple's revenue from iPhones, iPods and their App store, and then tell me how much revenue they make.[/citation]

The Mac accounts for 33% revenue of Apple as a whole, a $22 billion business. The mac section (if it were separate) would be number 110 on the Fortune 500.

Why should you only compare the Mac part of Apple to Microsoft as a whole though? Microsoft make money from all kinds of different products, as does Apple. All kinds of hardware and software.

This flash thing really is all hyped up anyway. OSX is the only operating system where Flash has come installed as standard - Windows certainly never has. Apple's also moving to stop shipping Java as standard. Apple's claimed reason is that Flash/Java updates come out on different release cycles to Mac OS updates and Apple's way of providing these updates has always been to include them in their Mac OS updates. This has resulted in older versions being installed on user machines.

In a way, this was kind of an inevitability. However, it would have been nicer if Apple and Adobe could play ball and offer Flash updates straight through the Software Update feature.

Adobe have done well in hyping up the lack of Flash support in Apple iOS devices. So much so that no one seems to remeber that when the iPhone/iPad came out there was virtually no Flash support in *any* mobile phone. The few that did have support then and do now tend to run versions of Flash that do not run well, decrease battery life significantly and often don't even support the full Flash platform. Not to mention the fact that Flash was not designed for use with a touchscreen so a lot of Flash applications just don't work without a mouse.
 
Well, that's BS and we all know it. BUT, Flash is one of the most flawed software out there. Maybe it does make sense to let the users get the most up-to-date version of it to minimize the chance of malwares.
 
[citation][nom]warezme[/nom]BS, why not just ship the expensive trinket without an OS..., that way when the user gets it, they can download and install the LATEST version and be sure to have the have the BEST experience EVER![/citation]
Because you are a numbnut
 
It makes sense, but aren't macs supposed to have the advantage of the user not having to do things like this to make their computer usable?
 
While clearly Apple is trying to making a statement about Flash by not including it pre-installed I think it shouldn't be pre-installed for other reasons. Flash is a constant security hole and Adobe is frequently forced to release out-of-band patches to plug the latest exploit. Even worse is that often Adobe doesn't release a security patch right away and only provides a workaround such as disabling Javascript, which only mitigates but doesn't eliminate the security vulnerability. There is no reason why any system, Windows or Mac should ship with an out-of-date version of Flash.
 
[citation][nom]vittau[/nom]Well, it does make sense.IMO they should ship it without any third-party software (if there is any other... I don't know, I've never had an Apple computer).[/citation]
Wait! Isn't that what everyone (including the EU) is complaining about that Microsoft does? Supposedly, it's an unfair advantage for an OS company to pre-install their applications without pre-installing the competition's applications.
 
[citation][nom]Trashit[/nom]If I had spidy senses they'd be tingling right now. People do know that flash can and does include an auto update feature? Bill Evans's comments are definitely registering a high reading on my bullshit-ometer.[/citation]
Are you sure about that? My Macbook has an Application Manager, but that doesn't include flash. I'm 99% certain Adobe has not made an auto-updater for Mac.
If that is true, then this explanation truly does make a lot of sense.
 
This is a lame article, Every Mac that I've setup for a client for years hasn't had flash preinstalled, I recall having to do the same for all my windows clients also.
 
[citation][nom]velo2k77[/nom]This is a lame article, Every Mac that I've setup for a client for years hasn't had flash preinstalled, I recall having to do the same for all my windows clients also.[/citation]

Exactly. I did a clean install of Windows 7 and when I went ot a Flash site it ask me if I would like to install the latest Flash pugin.

This article is destined to be a " I hate Apple" - Troll feast

Come one trolls keep feeding on irrelevant rubbish... I really wonder what happened to Toms Hardware in the last couple of years...?
 
Apple's stance has been to support plugins in the past. Unlike Microsoft who does not directly but allows computer makers to supply Flash and other plugins with a computer. I think Apple touts providing such a plug and play experience. So I think its users may find it very different to have to download a plugin themselves.
But I don't see this as a bad thing. I think updates will be available far sooner for Mac users then waiting for Apple to send them out in a update.
 


Duhhhhhhhhh. Thats like saying "Take away MS revenue from W7, W Mobile and their Xbox, and then tell me how much revenue they make."

Having said that, sure your new PC may come bundled with W7, but manufacturers are only paying a few dollars to MS for that. For all we know Apple charge full price for the OS on EVERY machine, plus, they charge whatever they want on the hardware and people still buy it.

How would you run your business? Giving away your products at huge discounts to penetrate the market, or controlling the distribution chain and charging what you like?
 
I had to download about 2GB of update software from Apple after I installed 10.6, flash was the least of my problems. I think this is unfortunately the future because almost all software has bugs and needs to be updated, and security issues.
 
When I install FreeBSD it doesn't come with flash...oh wait...Adobe doesn't even make flash for FreeBSD.
 
[citation][nom]fellskrazykayaker[/nom]While clearly Apple is trying to making a statement about Flash by not including it pre-installed I think it shouldn't be pre-installed for other reasons. Flash is a constant security hole and Adobe is frequently forced to release out-of-band patches to plug the latest exploit. Even worse is that often Adobe doesn't release a security patch right away and only provides a workaround such as disabling Javascript, which only mitigates but doesn't eliminate the security vulnerability. There is no reason why any system, Windows or Mac should ship with an out-of-date version of Flash.[/citation]

This is pretty much why I despise Flash. It makes my job a constant headache when I have to always patch security holes.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom