Flash Replacement

[MechDeus]

Nah I wouldn't want to. But paying 3k for fucking flash is absurd.

Know what's more absurd? Paying 10 million for MS Office. Fucking retard bosses at my previous job (before I worked there, mind you) were so busy trying to suck up and get promotions that they couldn't be bothered to keep track of licenses, right up until MS decided to run an audit. The higher ups eventually got it worked down to a 4 million dollar fine plus purchasing all the extra licenses they had used plus an additional 100 licenses for each year over the next few years or some such.

[Thief Silver]

I gaurentee you it'd be just as bad if the exact situation were applied to Flash.

Both companies will rape you a new asshole.

[Brand X]

Nah I wouldn't want to. But paying 3k for fucking flash is absurd.

Flash CS3 Professional is only $699. $199 to upgrade from previous versions. The entire Creative Suite 3 is $2499. Not quite sure where you're getting this $3000 number from.

Unfortunately as far as making sure your animation is seen by as many users as possible there aren't many solutions out there besides Flash. Yellerdog's AJAX solution is at this point you're best option if you don't want to spend any money. Otherwise you may have to stick with animated GIF's.

[cka]

comedy "create mpeg video, convert to flv, jury rig flash-based player to loop video without controls to annoy the everliving shit out of your customers" option

serious answer: you could try microsoft's "Silverlight" platform, which they're trying to tout as a viable alternative to flash with the bonus of being .net driven

[Brand X]

SilverLight isn't much of an option. It's not so much MS's alternative to Flash as it is MS's alternative to Adobe FLEX. It's mainly used for developing RIA's, and there is still a very small percentage of people who have it installed on their computer. So making a simple animated banner in it is pretty pointless since not many people will see it. It also requires Microsoft Expression to help create graphics (unless you want hand code them in XAML which is a pain in the arse), which also costs $$$.