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Adobe evangelist: 'Go screw yourself Apple'

The Apple versus Adobe battle has hotted up after the iPhone maker banned Flash from its products.

By Nicole Kobie, 12 Apr 2010 at 10:14

One Adobe employee isn't taking Apple's latest snub lightly, telling the iPhone firm: "Go screw yourself."

Writing purely in a personal capacity on the official Flash blog, platform evangelist Lee Brimelow was responding to Apple's recent move to block the Adobe software from its iPhone and iPad.

"What they are saying is that they won’t allow applications onto their marketplace solely because of what language was originally used to create them," he wrote. "This is a frightening move that has no rational defense other than wanting tyrannical control over developers and more importantly, wanting to use developers as pawns in their crusade against Adobe."

Brimelow claimed that even Apple developers had to disagree with the move. "Any real developer would not in good conscience be able to support this," he said. "The trouble is that we will never hear their discontent because Apple employees are forbidden from blogging, posting to social networks, or other things that we at companies with an open culture take for granted."

Despite his evident anger, Brimelow noted that Apple and Adobe have helped each other get where they both are today, and said his firm's desire to move Flash onto the Apple platform had nothing to do with killing off another system.

He also noted that Adobe was not planning to pull its Creative Suite from the Mac platform, saying "this is something that Adobe would never consider in a million years."

Brimelow said he personally wouldn't spend "another cent" on Apple until the leadership changes, but said he's not trying to organise a boycott.

"Me deciding not to give money to Apple is not going to do anything to their bottom line. But this is equivalent to me walking into Macy’s to buy a new wallet and the salesperson spits in my face," he explained. "Chances are I won’t be buying my wallets at Macy’s anymore, no matter how much I like them."

In case that all wasn't clear enough, he ended with: "Go screw yourself Apple."

Brimelow clearly wasn't looking for any response from the usually vocal Apple supporters, adding: "Comments disabled as I’m not interested in hearing from the Cupertino Comment SPAM bots."

Read on for more about the battle between Apple and Adobe over Flash.

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6 comments

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Sour grapes

Mr Brimelow is entitled to a private rant, but this is really silly. Apple has a right to protect its products, especially in a time when leaks and spying are do commonplace. His best comment is that Apple and Adobe have helped each other in the past (and could continue doing so).
If Mr Brimelow is not interested in hearing from the "Cupertino Comment SPAM bots" he is ignoring a source that might help him better understand where Apple customers stand. But he seems to think he knows that. All a bit sad!

By old42fox on Tuesday Apr 13

Standards come and go but good product always wins

In order to push technology forward in its purest form let alone to satisfy the masses, you have to make tough decisions and Apple made the decision years ago now that it doesn't want Adobe Flash on its iPhones because it would provide users with a bad experience due to the slow nature of Flash as a web environment. It's their call and it's hardly being tyrannical when you alienate yourself from a Flash hungry market in order to protect the 'purity' and good user experience of your product.

Apple have created a market that, so far, has been free from blemishes caused by 'bloatware' and Flash isn't the only casualty - the vetting of all software that gets out there on the app store is another way they achieve this. These protective moves unfortunately play into the hands of Apple haters that interpret them as foul play and can't see the up side. Well, just look at the number of iPhones Apple have sold to date - no Flash support doesn't seem to have held them back and the masses always decide, not the manufacturer or the app companies. Today, users of technology go more for usability rather than standards. Like the early days of motoring, we used to care what was under the bonnet; nobody gives a fig anymore except for developers or tech heads and they're in the minority compared to street level users. In comparison to say a PC owner of 5 years ago, how many iPhone users today know what kind of processor is in their phone and what its clock rate is? Haven't a clue? - I thought so.

Steve Carter

By willacyman on Tuesday Apr 13

Lacks Understanding

It is probably difficult for Mr. Brimelow to accept, but the implementation of the Flash product for the Mac platform is pretty poor. Obviously, it will work, but there is nothing that will slow down the browsers I use, cause the CPU % to increase by multiples, or send internal heat and fan noise to plaid like Adobe Flash. It has been this way for a long time.

Some developers say that it is inept Flash programmers who cause the problem, that it is possible to design Flash designs that don't hog the CPU...this may be, but someone please tell that to YouTube. Until I launch into a Flash YouTube page, or any other page with Flash on it (before I started using ClickToFlash) I run silent and fast. I'm just glad YouTube now allows me to use H.264 encoded vids when possible, and now betas HTML5 videos - that is helping a lot.

I can't speak to Flash security problems, but they are so often fixed along with updates to serious Adobe Reader problems that one can suspect there is a legitimate issue there as well.

As a Photoshop user since 1990, I appreciate Adobe's style, and won't hold it against them that they are going to lose this battle because an open standard set of solutions are coming down the pike much faster than anyone imagined...or that one of their spokespeople panicked and disrespected us all with a rant that speaks more to his lack of grasping reality and understanding the needs of his users.

Decrying Apple, who utilize a pretty good policy toward keeping to more open standards, is just baiting the masses who don't understand the problems that Adobe created for themselves with their years of poor service to a loyal segment of their client base.

By internetmarine on Tuesday Apr 13

RE:

I can't for the life of me understand why Apple *wants* to have this fight. It's probably not going to harm them (or Adobe) in the slightest, but what slight risks there are Apple's: there is nothing I can't do without Apple, there are some things I can't do without Flash.

By Ashley on Tuesday Apr 13

I disagree with the way Mr. Brimelow went about this

But he makes a good point. This is just Apple stomping around trying to be King Dog. I am however, tired of Apple. I like their products but I’m not an Apple puppet; I don’t want companies bitching like little school girls over crap like this because it means I wont be getting what I want on a particular device. I have no performance issues with Flash. It runs fine on every systems I own, however, I would like to have it on my iPhone, but, this stupidity means that I’ll probably not be seeing it any time soon. Therefore, when I’m due to switch it out later in the year, I’ll be looking for an android device such as the HTC Legend. If it doesn’t work for me, I’ll dump that when the time comes and move onto something else. Apple needs to grow up!

By dogsoldier on Tuesday Apr 13

This is NOT about Flash

The comments on here are reflection of the misguided and ignorant masses that worship Apple. Brimelow's comments are not about Flash not being on the iPhone. It has nothing to do with Flash. It is about the abilty to export Flash code to native iPhone code. This also affects other third parties like Unity3D which are responsible for a number of high profile games on the app store. An analogy by a high profile developer said this is the same as Apple deciding not to put a song on iTunes if it is not made with garage band. So if you are going to make a comment please get your facts right.

By factsvsfiction on Thursday Apr 15