After Steve Jobs published his Adobe Flash rant (an open letter called “Thoughts on Flash,” which is now live on Apple.com, as well as every tech site on the webs), now we have Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen on record with the Wall Street Journal, reacting to the Apple CEO’s letter.

So what does Narayen have to say about that? Well, it’s nearly the same stuff he’s been quoted as saying before. But what he says may not be as important as how he says it. The man’s just seen a very high-profile exec trash his company (or at least one of the tech tools it’s responsible for). How would you react?

Outraged? Defensive? Even combative? Narayen hit all three (and I can’t say I blame him):

According to the Adobe chief, Flash really is an "open specification." And, firing back at Jobs, he called the letter’s points just a "smokescreen" and accused Apple of being the one that impedes developers. Furthermore, he said Cupertino’s restrictions are "cumbersome" to devs, that the idea of Flash draining batteries was “patently false,” and implied that if Adobe ever crashed an Apple system, it has to do with the Apple OS. 

So no big reveals or surprises there. Of course he defends Adobe. To him, Flash is all about the puppies, rainbows and children’s giggles it evokes in developer-land, as it makes easier work of writing for multiple platforms.

In all seriousness, though, that was actually his real point through all this: "[Apple and Adobe] have different views of the world," he says. "Our view of the world is multi-platform." He hit the nail on the head. This is exactly counter to Jobs’ opinion that multi-platform tools make for bad user experiences. And when core operating principles diverge like this, it’s not likely to get resolved quickly.

My favorite part of the interview was when Alan Murray, the interviewer, likened “the Apple-Adobe fight to that between reality TV stars Jon and Kate Gosselin…” So true. These two honchos have a “Jon and Kate” knack for taking potshots at each other through the media.

It does feel like being privy to sentiments that should be between just the two of them, no? Suddenly, I’m reminded of the time I was having dinner at a friend’s house when she and her boyfriend got into a fight. They wouldn’t talk to each other, but they couldn’t stop venting to me.

Via: Wall Street Journal