OTOH, I now gladly accept Flex’s file size overhead. Years ago I was much more size-minded, but this got me thinking. People are watching dozens of 10-200MB videos daily, so a 100k web app is nothing these days. It actually takes longer to show & hide a preloader animation that it takes to download a 1MB web app. In fact lots of common digital processes such as email often have a bigger header than the actual message contained. So if they’re cool with it, I can be too.

Still, if the direction really is more towards Flex, then eventually the player itself needs to have Flex built into it, so that the framework doesn’t have to be downloaded.

Of course, RSLs can reduce your file size, but that assumes people have the framework loaded via using another Flex app elsewhere. An assumption that doesn’t really do anything for people who have not done so. You might as well as say it doesn’t matter how big the images are on your site because someone who’s already been there has them cached.

Now I think I’m going to go rewrite some small Flex apps in AS3 only just for fun.

It’s just not well documented.