Adobe's CEO: Jobs' Flash letter is a 'smokescreen' for 'cumbersome' restrictions (update: video)
By Nilay Patel 
posted April 29th 2010 4:11PM
posted April 29th 2010 4:11PM
There's no official transcript yet, but the Wall Street Journal just live-blogged an interview with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, in which he responded to the Steve Jobs "Thoughts on Flash" letter posted this morning. Substantively, Narayen didn't offer much we haven't heard Adobe say before, but his frustration with Apple is palpable even in summary form: he called Jobs' points a "smokescreen," said Flash is an "open specification," and further said Apple's restrictions are "cumbersome" to developers and have "nothing to do with technology." What's more, he also said Jobs' claims about Flash affecting battery life are "patently false," and suggested that any Flash-related crashes on OS X have more to do with Apple's operating system than Adobe's software.Perhaps most importantly, Narayen reiterated that Adobe is fundamentally about making it easier for devs to write multiplatform tools -- a stance Jobs specifically took issue with in his letter, saying multiplatform tools lead to bad user experiences. Apple and Adobe and the rest of us can argue about battery life and performance all night, but that's clearly the central philosophical difference between these two companies, and we doubt it's ever going to change. That is, unless Adobe absolutely kills it with Flash 10.1 on Android 2.2 -- and given our experiences with Flash on smartphones and netbooks thus far, we'll be honest when we say that's going to be a major challenge. We'll link over to the full transcript when it goes up, but for now, hit the source link for the liveblog.
Update: We've now embedded video of the interview for you after the break. Much better than a transcript, don't you think?
He could have just posted 'LOL!' with the same effect.
@MarkAnderson
Or a flash movie of a face palm.
I think Adobe should counter with Thunderbolt. It's super effective!
@MarkAnderson
Google should buy Adobe and cancels CS5 as well as flash for OSX. then we will see how these Apple boasting fanatics like their macs without photoshop like they do on youtube posting their so called photoshop skills on their MACS
HTML5 uses more CPU power than Flash itself
@jdm28690
Steve Jobs fainted. Use a super potion!
@SolidSnake
Previous comment directed at the N900, the beastliest phone known to man.
Curse you Engadget comment system, I shall have my revenge!
If you see a cardboard box outside your offices, you know who it is....
@jdm28690
Stop drinking the juice it's killing you.
@SolidSnake. To hell with the super potion, this calls for Force Heal!
@jdm28690
I completely agree... No photoshop for Mac... that would make the Mac a really expensive WebTV!!!
Stick it to em Adobe!
Google buy Adobe? Perfect, and I don't even like Google!
@kapryt You my friend are what the French call "les incompetents"
@metaesapuet - Again, what is this all about? I am watching redtube on my NON jailbroken iphone right now and over 3G to boot. So, ask me how?
@jdm28690 You sound like a good businessman!
@kapryt I'm glad most of you don't run a business as you'd make some dumb decisions. Do you know what percentage of revenue Adobe receive from their Mac products? What a brilliant idea, dump a load of revenue, Apple then decides it's going to make its own version of Photoshop, who gets hurt most, certainly not Apple.
Idiots.
@wilvo
Hmm... replace the software suite that staff are familiar with or replace the hardware it runs on? Which is easier?
Decisions, decisions...
@MarkAnderson Adobe's health is low! Google! Come on out!
@kapryt yes that worked really well for Adobe when they made Premier a Windows only application didn't it /s
His commentary is full of LOL, that's for sure:
"he also said Jobs' claims about Flash affecting battery life are "patently false,"
O RLY Mr. Narayen? I would like to personally invite you to come to my house and listen to my MacBook fan while I watch Flash-based video and compare it to the sound my fan makes while I'm watching QuickTime and/or h.264-based video.
Since you're a software guy, perhaps I need to explain to you that the battery powers the fan. It also powers the processor, which - being irrationally overtaxed by a standard-def Flash video - runs hot (while sucking more power), consequentially firing up the fan (and sucking more power).
A Flash-free Web sounds perfectly great to me.
@HotFuzz
Are you sure that whirring is your fan when you're watching Flash video?
@HotFuzz
I also heard macbooks runs as hot as 100 degrees when doing a simple cinebench test, i guess there's something wrong with Apple's design or cinebench is going to get the blame too ?
@kapryt
Killing Photoshop for Macintosh?. I don't belive that would happen. No doubt Apple have thought about the prospect of it happening though. I still belive they have something ready in their lab's to unleash if it does.
@metaesapuet Honestly, I can't remember a single Flash Crash on my Mac although I do remember several gray-screens-of-death back in the OS X Tiger days.
@HotFuzz Actually whenever I run anything Quicktime or iTunes on my PC laptop just about every resource is used. No offence but iTunes and Quicktime are the biggest resource hogs on the planet.
@MarkAnderson
I totally pay that.
So adobe has shown apple a mobile flash player that plays ALL flash. Or just a subset of the web unto adobe?
@Cy Starkman
I dunno. It depends if they gave them an N900 or not.
@N900
I prefer Thunder over Thunderbolt.
[=
@TheSunman89 Consumers ran out of usable alternatives! Paid out $499 to Apple!
@MarkAnderson I would much rather learn all over a Brand new Apple photoshop competitor(which might even be better) than to leave my Mac. And my jobs revolves around Adobe’s suite.
@metaesapuet Or with a picture of the infamous "no flash" question mark cube displaying on the ipad. Would be even more classic if you could find a pic of Steve Jobs holding it =P
@abedinthehouse Me too. Even with its lower accuracy.
@lerxst
Itunes and Quicktime blow up my gaming machine. I get all kinds of errors and crashes when quicktime loads; or it might not load at all. And if it does load, the usage is so high, I might as well not do anything else. And I finally uninstalled that annoyware called iTunes.
Man I'll be playing a game in fullscreen on my PC and the frakking thing will keep popping up asking me if I want to update. Keeps gettign me killed. And no matter how many times you press "Do not alert me anymore!" it still does!...
@lerxst Maybe on Windows. On OS X, resources are hardly used.
@ounkeo Maybe skipping the updates has something to do with your performance problems.
@MarkAnderson
Why not just put Flash as an app in the App Store like webOS is doing? You could even post a warning that it will drain your battery and maybe cause crashes. That way those people who want Flash can get it, and those who don't can steer clear. And if it gets to be too much of a pain then anyone can just delete it. Apple-Win because people get Flash if they want it. Adobe-Win, flash gets on another device (maybe not great but at least it does). People-Win. They get Flash
@nando2323
Why is it plural? Tu es stupide.
@kapryt actually it would not. There are other programs out there besides photoshop, premiere etc. And probably a few companies that would love to fill the voids.
On the other hands, how much of Adobe's sales are the Mac versions. It is possible that it is enough to cause some serious damage if they were gone.
@MarkAnderson: LOL? I will say this chump looks more reserved than I thought he would considering Jobs just ripped Adobe and him a brand new hole. Welcome to the abyss, Shanta U.
@MarkAnderson Maybe Jobs ought to have some thoughts on itunes. It has to be the most system hogging application ever - of course on windows. Bonjour = locked up system.
@metaesapuet But Apple iPhone and iPad users couldn't see it then. :-)
I say, when Microsoft Windows Phone 7 gets behind Adobe or vice versa, they will OWN the market within two years. It will be a deja vu, just like Windows.
@MarkAnderson Jobs said: ""Flash is the number one reason Macs crash," but adds another great point on top of this: "We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it."
Steve had just laid his number 1 selfish point again -- and no one can do about it. I mean, he love his iDevice so much that the mere thought of it having a glitch drives him crazy already.
I'm still with adobe, but they need to improve their platform so malware related issues will be minimized (eradicated) so everybody can zip their mouths now about bashing it with security flaws. Opinions. http://j.mp/apple-tablet-experience
@jdm28690
Unfortunately, Mac users account for 50% of their CS sales.
@onlymyrailgun
How do you know that apple sales are 50% of Adobe's business? They don't break out sales based on platform in their filings and that information isn't available on line. Just a good guess to support your theory that Adobe would be stupid to stop producing product for that platform. Listen, I know of many design shops that would jump at running a Linux based version of CS?. Many of them apple based and Windows based. And the number of Windows based design shops is growing substantially. I'd also venture that many apple based designers wouldn't hold out for an apple replacement but would likely move to Win7 and run software they're already familiar with. Besides, everyone knows that Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere Pro all run better on Windows 7 than they do on any apple platform.
@MarkAnderson why won't he just admit that flash suxx that would be awesome LOL
@wilvo good point what good is it going to do to punish apple's customers. This happens everytime there is a post about this debate some dumb ass fanboi comes up with some dumb idea and wants to hurt apples customers.
@apple immune
Steve said so in his essay. First paragraph. Thank you.
@MarkAnderson I SAY ADOBE SHOULD STOP SUPPORTING APPLE. AND YANK PHOTOSHOP.
@jf79
yes they are. I do this stuff for a living. I have a test machine setup (old G5 imac) it cant play any h264 videos smoothly, flash video (that I create) play ok but not ideal. it does for some reason play videos smoothly in itunes but not quicktime
@HotFuzz ... he clearly states hardware acceleration being the game changer with regards to battery life.
@wilvo Correct in essence, but if you think apple can make its own creative suite or even only photoshop just like that, you're wrong.
@onlymyrailgun If Adobe stop CS for Mac. All of them are going to back to windows otherwise they lose their job.
@jdm28690 Trust me, if adobe were to cancel photoshop, apple could absolutly bake out a photoshop-esque app. In addition, photoshop isn't the only photo-editing tool out there, ya know?
And the part about HTML5 using more CPU? yeah, that's the whole point! Flash on OSX doesn't use hardware acceleration, it uses software to make all its fancy graphics. That's why its a resource hog.;)