I'm a bit panicked here.

I have been using Flash to build applications for 24/7 accessable public kiosk applications. Until recently this seemed to be a good solution, especially with help from programs like Zinc.

A recent situation with a client and one of our programs has revealed a HUGE PROBLEM though. When REPEATIVELY loading and unloading exteral files (swfs, jpgs, etc), Flash Player 8 seems to keep the page file loaded with the data from these files even after they've been unloaded.

Some of our applications load huge files (300mb or so). Some of them may load 100s of jpegs per day, depending on user traffic.

Needless to say, once the page file gets large enough, the app fails.

Am i understanding things correctly? IS THERE A SOLUTION? We have a huge project launching next month! Should I revert everything back to Flash Player 7 because i need a 24/7 app that loads and unloads external files?

This isn't a huge issue for web apps, as they load into a browser for a bit, and then go away when the user leaves the site or closes the browser... But I need an app that runs 24/7... Is Flash no longer a solution for this?