Item: Adobe Animate
Rating: 7
Author: Benjamin Yee

Overall Satisfaction with Adobe Flash

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Adobe Flash runtime is used throughout the whole organization, as it is used for most websites, for media and moving graphics. Some of the business problems it addresses depend on the graphics that are needed for the organization, such as diagrams and schematics for different components for certain types of vehicles. We particularly use different Adobe software, such as Reader to manipulate the sizes of the graphics, not as much for using Adobe's professional software, which can be used for animations and movies.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Rich media - Adobe's goal for Flash is to "deliver more secure and consistent HD quality video across mobile devices, TVs, and desktops."
Good interactivity - Using some of the professional software can allow you to interact with a program, such as games.
Vast Browser Compatibility - Flash can be used across most common web browsers, including IE, Firefox, Chrome, and Opera.

Cons

Bugs and crashes - like most software, sometimes websites run too slow and Flash would crash while loading certain graphics and animations on websites (or stop playing media).
Consistent security patches - very critical for Flash, but if you do not have the latest version, vulnerability is likely to happen.
Not suitable for mobile websites - you cannot download or use Flash on smartphones, such as iPhones or Android devices.

Return on Investment

Useful for certain websites - some websites can run on Flash very well, while others tend to work, then crash.
Limitations on mobile devices - you cannot run certain websites there, and would have to have Flash installed.
Pre-Installed on some web browsers - including IE on Windows 10 or Chrome on the latest versions.

Alternatives Considered

The only major alternative is to run your media on HTML5 and find mobile sites (or others) that can run on mobile devices. HTML5 tends to run directly on the browser faster (and doesn't crash very often). I would only select Adobe Flash if a specific website that I needed for the business (or personal / leisure) is required, otherwise, I'm open to running the alternatives and open-source programs that would serve as an alternative to Flash.

Likelihood to Recommend

It is well suited for scenarios for desktop and laptop PC websites, but not if you are wanting to view a Flash website on a mobile device or tablet.
You mainly use it to view digital media, animations, and other graphics that would require Flash. However, if Flash continues to crash when you visit a specific website on a web browser, you would need to either update it or uninstall it and find a better alternative, such as HTML5.

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