In a blog post by Danny Winokur over on the Flash Platform Blog, it’s clear that Adobe sees Flash as playing a pivotal role in Windows for years to come.
We expect Windows desktop to be extremely popular for years to come (including Windows 8 desktop) and that it will support Flash just fine, including rich web based games and premium videos that require Flash. In addition, we expect Flash based apps will come to Metro via Adobe AIR, much the way they are on Android, iOS and BlackBerry Tablet OS today, including the recent number one paid app for the iPad on the Apple App Store, Machinarium, which is built using Flash tools and deployed on the Web using Flash Player and through app stores as a standalone app.While nothing will change with respect to plug-in support for the classic Windows 8 desktop, Microsoft has decided to give plug-ins the shove with respect to the Internet Explorer 10 ‘Metro UI’ browser. Instead, Microsoft is cutting legacy ties when it comes to Metro and pushing HTML5 over proprietary plug-ins such s Flash.
The reasons given by Microsoft for dropping plug-in support in Metro is performance, efficiency and security - three points that make a lot of sense when it comes to tablets. But the Metro UI isn’t confined to tablets. Microsoft is pushing the Metro as the default ‘desktop’ for all, and this means that ‘default’ support for technologies such as Flash are no longer present in Windows, and some people aren’t happy.
