Semi-OT: Thoughts on Flash pages in MetaLink?

Hey all,

Just poking around the new-ish Metalink Flash-based design in the SCM area. It looks prettier, but the interface seems, well, annoying. Maybe I'm just getting old and stuck in my old ways, but I think it's be more difficult to use.

It's Flash, so it comes with all the Flash limitations -- can't view in many browsers (e.g. mobile), breaks browser's "Back" and "History" functionality, heavier net traffic and local GUIfication makes it slower, etc.

Also with the Flash page I can only pull up one article at a time. As a workaround, I can launch a new tab (in Firefox) for a new dashboard, but I have to reenter the search and remember where I was (provided the search results are deterministic, to borrow a PL/SQL term). Plus, the extra 30-60 second load time for the dashboard is excessive.

I left Oracle feedback a few times already, but the 200-char limit on it doesn't do it justice.

Am I just cranky or is this going to be an issue for any other Oracle Support customers? If it's going to take me longer to effectively search the KB for a solution than it is to file an SR...

Thoughts anyone?

Rich

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