Flash was specifically built to integrate vector graphics and light games in a web page, features that HTML5 also supports.
[60] The last version of the Adobe Flash Player ran on Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, RIM, QNX and Google TV.
Adobe Flash Lite runs on Wii, Symbian, Maemo Linux, Windows Mobile, and Chumby.
[63][64] In August 2016, Adobe announced that, beginning with version 24, it would resume offering of Flash Player for Linux for other browsers.
[68][69] As of December 2013[update], versions of browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Opera, and Safari implement HTML5 to a considerable degree.
The multimedia integration with HTML5 is quite easy and creates better support for live video streaming on mobile devices also.
[72] However, the "SWF File Format Specification Version 10" allegedly did not contain all the needed information, did not contain much information that hadn't been previously known by the community,[73] and itself could not be copied, printed out in more than one copy, distributed, resold or translated, without written approval of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
In contrast, HTML5 is controlled mostly by a committee, the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG).
[75][76] Speaking at 'Adobe Max' in 2011, Itai Asseo likewise said that, unlike HTML5, Flash offers a way to develop applications that work across platforms.
If Flash falls out of favor, he said, web developers will either have to develop many different versions of their web sites and native applications to take into account different HTML5 implementations, deny access to browsers that do not support their version of HTML, or dramatically reduce the functionality of their sites in order to deliver content to the least-advanced browser.
[81][82] Some users, more so those on macOS and Linux, complained about the relatively high CPU usage of Flash for video playback.
The main HTML 5 standard does not include any digital rights management functionality directly, instead the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME) specification describes application interface (API) for communication channel between web browsers and digital rights management (DRM) agent software.
[87] The proposal to add DRM features to HTML5 itself has been criticized by those who consider openness and vendor-neutrality (both server- and client-side) one of the most important properties of HTML, because DRM is incompatible with free software,[88][89] and in the proposed form potentially not more vendor-neutral than proprietary plug-ins like Flash.
Keyboard, mouse and other accessibility shortcuts may not have worked unless the webpage developer explicitly added support for it.