[blinkingled]

But that is also progress. If it wasn't for Google's investment we would still maybe running Flash. People have had a lot of time to advance the web before Google came along.

The standard is open, the code is open - I don't understand how "is Chrome the new IE?" even a question. It's not like they're bundling it only on ChromeOS and Android , it's not like they have the equivalent of VbScript /ActiveX and plenty of people are making browsers based on Chromium.

[_8j50]

I do think google innovated a lot but I think htlm5 killed flash not google. Html5 is a web standard. Chrome is very much the new IE, it use to be I was forced to run IE for some b.s. legacy corporate webapp now I am forced to run Chrome. Why? Because devs have to prioritize a browser and the amount of non standard supposed engineering by google means they can't support other browsers.

Google is playing a winner takes all game of dominance. Imagine if Ford became so popular that mechanics can't be bothered to fix other cars because Ford does everything differently.

People are being forced to base browsers on Chromium because no one will use anything else due to sites depending on Chromium only features! This is very anti-innovation.

You came up with a cool new feature in firefox (like containers) and you want to standardize it? Well if uncle google says no you're out of luck. Standards exist for a reason and engineers(even at google) use to have enough professionalism to respect the concept and process of having an internet where everyone participates democratically.

I hate to keep on coming to similar conclusions but Browsers need to be regulated if the browser industry is always being overrun by some monopoly.

[Tijdreiziger]

Apple killed Flash.

HTML5 just provided a suitable replacement for Flash, but suddenly having a large browser (Mobile Safari) that just couldn't play Flash content at all provided the incentive for web devs to actually invest the effort to switch to HTML5.

[clankyclanker]

This is the correct answer. To add historical perspective, I had friends who would go into Apple stores and point all the demo machines at newgrounds.com to show people that they shouldn’t waste their money on devices that couldn’t even play flash animations as well as a low end laptop.

[reaperducer]

If it wasn't for Google's investment we would still maybe running Flash.

It wasn't Google, it was Apple that very famously and publicly killed Flash.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200614182254/https://www.apple...

[blinkingled]

Most browsing still happens on desktop and without the equivalent HTML5 standards there would be no replacing Flash. Last I checked Apple really isn’t a big web standards pusher or implementer. I guess people just have to romanticize everything Apple. Sure it was a factor but Apple hardly was the only factor.

[jakelazaroff]

It’s very revisionist history to say that Apple has never been a big standards pusher or implementer. Basically every modern browser engine other than Gecko is descended from Apple’s Webkit.

[rudiv]

Apple WebKit itself is descended from KDE's WebKit IIRC.

[jakelazaroff]

KDE's browser engine wasn't called WebKit, but you're correct that WebKit began by forking it. That doesn't contradict my point, though.

[blinkingled]

Porting KHTML to macOS and honoring its license to keep it open is very different than contributing to the HTML5 standard and implementing cutting edge features quickly. The latter helps with killing Flash more than declaring we are not going to support it.

[reaperducer]

Apple made Flash a no-go on mobile. At the time, people had no distinction between mobile web and desktop web, so if your web site didn't work on an iPhone, it was forgotten and left in the dust.

Today, you can be on one or the other. But that wasn't the case back then.

Last I checked Apple really isn’t a big web standards pusher or implementer

I'm sorry you wasted your time checking on something that I didn't state.

people just have to romanticize everything Apple

No romanticizing needed. I was there, and lived through it.

[blinkingled]

> I'm sorry you wasted your time checking on something that I didn't state.

Just saying no Flash use our app store apps without contributing to open xp alternatives does not amount to killing Flash. Making the alternative better, accessible to all in an open way does.

[userbinator]

The standard is open, the code is open

"standard" means nothing when Google is churning it every day. It coined the completely idiotic term "living standard" and has basically used its propagandic powers to drag everyone else along.

Its idea of "progress" is the exact opposite of what the web needs.

Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9961613

[earthboundkid]

If Google had succeeded we’d be using Dart (yuck) instead of ES6 (yum).

[xrisk]

it’s about the kind of ecosystem they’re attempting to build – look at AMP for example