Microsoft has taken the decision to skip the support for all kinds of plugins and thus also Adobe Flash in its Metro version of the browser of the new operating system Windows 8. The Metro interface is tailored for tablets and touch screen, and will be limited in its use like Apple iOS and iPad, but the default browser of Windows 8 will still use Flash.
Windows 8 is looking more and more like two separate operating system gathered under one roof. Besides two very separate interfaces – Metro for touch and Desktop for mouse and keyboard – it has developed two versions of the new browser Internet Explorer 10.
Microsoft decided to separate the two browsers to optimize their use on each platform and input devices. IE 10 will build on a new HTML5 rendering engine and while the desktop version of the browser supports plugins and additions the Metro version will only use integrated functionality, mainly through the HTML5 standards.
Windows 8 gets a separate version of IE10 for the Metro touch interface.
Removing plugins will according to Microsoft offer both a better user experience on the modern HTLM5 web and improved battery time, security and reliability. The company says that HTML5 has spread so far it is almost unnecssary to support flash – most sites have HTML5 as a complement to flash – while Microsoft has unlike Apple the possibility to switch over to the desktop version of the browser for a broader support.
“On Windows 8, consumer sites and “line of business” applications that require legacy ActiveX controls will continue to run in the desktop browser, and people can tap “Use Desktop View” in Metro style IE for these sites. For what these sites do, the power of HTML5 makes more sense, especially in Windows 8 apps.” Commented Dean Hachamovitch, head of development for Internet Explorer
Adobe’s flash imperium is cracking, but the company show no reason for concern to the public where it says that also the Metro portion of Windows 8 will contain flash applications, through the Adobe Air platform that today serves flash applications to BlackBerry, Android and iOS.
