And in less than a year, those sites will migrate again to Flash 10.1+n. Even if Maemo 5 receives a Flash update, even if Harmattan-MeeGo for the N900 includes Flash 10.1, it's just delaying the inevitable.

Again and again.

It used to be that web developers only cautiously adopted the fancy, new features made available by newer versions of the plug-ins upon which their sites relied. There was a constant fear that site visitors would leave forever if presented with a "you must upgrade your plug-in" message.

Now though, sites rush to adopt the latest Flash release. After all, everyone (or everyone who matters, at least) has broadband so another 10 MB plug-in download is just a matter of seconds, and not being seen to fall behind that other video site in whiz-bang features is the priority. Ugh.

We all know the electronic gadgets we buy today are already eclipsed by the ones announced for tomorrow. Choosing devices that are more open and have more active communities can offset that somewhat, but closed bits like Flash keep us suffering the whims of corporations with their own, shifting interests.

In this case, it appears that circumstance has conspired against us. Nokia is focused now on the more-open-than-Maemo MeeGo. Adobe is focused now on getting the biggest bang for their buck in their "most open closed solution" war with Apple. And we, and our own little handfuls of openness, are left behind.

I suspect an updated Flash player will be available with MeeGo-Harmattan for N900 later, but that's just my hunch. Even if that hunch proves to be correct, how long before that version falls behind?