Let me start off by saying that I have always been a bit neutral about the whole Flash vs. HTML5 debate because I think at this nascent stage, it’s still a bit like apples and oranges and both have their strengths in certain situations.

But, as someone who has done a good amount of programming in actionscript3 for interactive projects, I was reluctant to buy many of the arguments against Flash, especially about its energy and resource consumption. I’ve always believed that. But I thought Apple exaggerated.

But wow. I was wrong.

I am watching an event lecture on Vimeo and as Chrome is generally my browser of choice, I watched the first 8 minutes via Flash. And the macbook air fans quickly kicked up to 6500 RPM and it was LOUD.

8:51 minutes into the video,  I quit Chrome switched to Safari (no built in Flash).  Minutes later, fans were down to 3500 rpm and still audible, but normal.  Now, ten minutes later, it is at 2500rpm and not noticeable.

Wow.