Flash for 64 bit Vista

The company I work for has contacted Adobe in February 2008 about this issue, since quite a few of our customers had switched to a 64 Vista version of Vista back then. Adobe ensured us at the time that they were working on the 64 bit version of the player so we could still provide our customers with the proper solutions and support.

Almost 2 years down the road, Adobe still hasn't delivered. It's amazing how much effort Adobe puts into building and selling software, but when it gets to support they fall short. Windows 7 has been released and 64 bit has now, more than ever before, been accepted by the global community. This is confirmed (for us anyway) when we take a look at the visit reports of our websites. What is also interesting is that 0.52% of our visitors have Linux, most of them not running 64 bit. The fraction of the 0.52% that do use a 64 bit OS/browser at least have the option though to now use a 64 bit Flash player.

I must have a totally different perspective of marketing strategy than the people pulling strings over at Adobe. I fail to see how the absolute minority of end users of a product should be the first and only group to be able to use a product. Even though I myself also use Linux along my Windows machines, I still think Adobe's approach is completely twisted. We have been developing in Flash for years now. The worst change since its launch has been the power-shift from Macromedia to Adobe, back in 2005. First thing to go it seems, was support.

We've gone through a series of discussions at the office over the past 6-7 weeks, about what course to plot for future web and software development. It may take a while, and it will be an investment, but we're going to stop using Adobe products. Most of what we want almost everything can be achieved by using techniques such as Ajax these days, it just requires some (big, but in the end financially attractive) adjustments within the company. Yes, it may seem a bit strange that the lack of a 64 bit player might lead to a decision like that, but think about it; What good is a Flash application if a (vastly growing) part of our visitors/customers can't see it.And apart from that, we simply don't like to be taken for a ride by Adobe. If they had been honest years ago by telling us "Yeah,.. we're sort of working on it,.. but hey,.. we'll see if we can come up with something in,.. say... 5 years or so." then at least we wouldn't have had to waste a lot of money and time. Now we've just been lied to, mislead. And that is a complete deal breaker for us. If we can't rely on support from Adobe, we can't offer our customers the support and service they deserve.

Early 2010 we will be switching all our desktops to Windows7, 64-bit. If our developers can't see the result of what they're doing in a default 64-bit browser it's useless to continue with Adobe Flash anyway.I'm sure Adobe would love to respond with "Just use a 32-bit browser",.. but I think Adobe might want to get their heads out of the sand and get their act together; The world is evolving. It's unlikely that just because Adobe won't adapt, the world will stop evolving and stick with 32 bit just because one player in the game refuses (yes, refuses! I don't believe for a second that in all these years Adobe hasn't been able to create a fully working 64 bit Flash player!!!) to evolve along with the world. We're moving on, and away from Flash.