I don't know if this is on topic or not...

That's actually quite interesting. Now that the latest swf file spec is well documented, and the AS3's libraries have been exposed, I'm surprised that there's not a popular OS flash alternative (forgive me if there is).

AISI (as I see it) flash suffers from an identity problem. On the one hand it's a robust, extremely powerful, and VERY FAST environment for general development. Even today, it remains unchallenged in this regard (yes, HTML5, I'm talking to you). However, it's known mostly for annoying internet advertisements or the dreaded all-flash websites. Despite it's usefulness (and you're lying to yourself or simply ignorant if you don't think it's useful), it commonly insulted based on this fact -- which is unfortunate. Flash is easily more common and consistent than Java on the web and used effectively to solve MANY different problems. Here are a few:

1) realtime 3D rendering
2) bringing standards to non-compatible browsers (ie. IE)
3) network socket programming
4) Sound rendering and playback
5) Video/Audio streaming

Perhaps its lack of popularity with the OS community is reason for not producing a robust OS alternative... Perhaps there is a working alternative for AS3 that I'm not aware of...