Flash or Quicktime?

[Richard Gaskin]

Stephen Barncard wrote:
> Native, pure quicktime works really well by itself in its native formats.

Except for the other 90% of the world that runs Windows or Linux. ;)

There isn't a QT engine at all for Linux (please oh please tell me 
that's changed or will soon).

And sure, Apple provides an installer for QT on Windows.  But as 
convenient as it is for end-users, the IT staff in hospitals and 
universities I've been talking to really dislike the broad range of 
often-unnecessary system settings the QT installer changes.

So while I like QT personally, for some apps we've had to switch to WMV.

WMV is natively playable on Win systems with nothing else required, and 
for Mac folks it's a favor to encourage them to get Flip4Mac if they 
haven't already (when will that simply be bundled in with QT?).

Of course with QT you get the nifty controller, but an increasing number 
of apps I manage that use QT have needs that go beyond the built-in 
controller anyway.  Building a custom controller not only lets you 
implement the specific features you need, but also lets you deploy 
without QT dependence.  The QT controller buttons are pretty small 
anyway, and features like looping and selections can be scripted fairly 
easily without QT.

So rather than inconvenience the majority of our users by asking Win 
folks to install QT, we've flipping that around and asking Mac users to 
install Flip4Mac.  Not only are the numbers more favorable this way, but 
Flip4Mac is far less intrusive to the Mac system than QT is to Windows, 
both in terms of file size and scope of system changes.

I still don't know what we're going to do for Linux -- is there a WMV 
translator for Linux as there is for Mac?  What formats are widely 
supported there?

All that said, I don't know that there's a single the best choice; it 
really depends on the specific needs of the application and its target 
audience.  For many consumer apps using QT is just fine, and offers a 
lot of flexibility for the developer with little coding.

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Managing Editor, revJournal
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