Adobe Flash Player

[yorkie]

The "product from Hell" will soon be no more...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40716304

Adobe Systems has said that it plans to phase out its Flash Player plug-in by the end of 2020.
The technology was once one of the most widely used ways for people to watch video clips and play games online.
But it also attracted much criticism, particularly as flaws in its code meant it became a popular way for hackers to infect computers.
In recent years, much of its functionality has been offered by the rival HTML5 technology.

Most websites use HTML5 these days, so there isn't really a need for Flash anymore.

 

[DaleCooper]

No more "Adobe Flash Player has stopped working". What a shame.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I have noticed that the BT Wholesale Speed Tester still insist that you HAVE to use their link to install Adobe Flash Player, in order to make access possible.

I thought that I would check if this posting that I made last year was still the same. It still is, as stated in their instructions.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

The "product from Hell" will soon be no more...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-40716304

Most websites use HTML5 these days, so there isn't really a need for Flash anymore.

There's a good few in browser games that still use Flash

 

[northwichcat]

There's a good few in browser games that still use Flash

HTML5 doesn't have as much functionality as Flash yet but can handle more common tasks like allowing a video to be embedded within a web page much better than Flash. It's also much quicker for a developer to embed a video with HTML5.

However, one of the problems with using HTML5 is support in browsers which aren't updated regularly. That is a problem in businesses in particular because some businesses use software which would work stop working if they updated to the latest version of a browser and unfortunately the NHS fits in to that category.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

One annoying trend that I've noticed in recent months, don't know if it's down to sites migrating over to HTML5 but a lot of sites seem to autoplay videos now, very annoying on news sites if you open up each news story in it's own browser tab

 

[yorkie]

There's a good few in browser games that still use Flash

Are developers still making Flash games? I'd have thought they'd have a much better business case making games in HTML5, given Flash has been doomed for some time now.

One annoying trend that I've noticed in recent months, don't know if it's down to sites migrating over to HTML5 but a lot of sites seem to autoplay videos now, very annoying on news sites if you open up each news story in it's own browser tab

I recommend avoiding/boycotting those sites. They'll soon get the message if everyone does that.

 

[northwichcat]

One annoying trend that I've noticed in recent months, don't know if it's down to sites migrating over to HTML5 but a lot of sites seem to autoplay videos now, very annoying on news sites if you open up each news story in it's own browser tab

The Independent is very bad for that. I've installed a Disabled HTML5 Autoplay plug in to Chrome.

 

[northwichcat]

Are developers still making Flash games? I'd have thought they'd have a much better business case making games in HTML5, given Flash has been doomed for some time now.

The last Flash project I worked on was taken down in 2012 - it was an online brochure which had valid content until January 2012 and the client decided not to do a new one for 2012. However, if it's a game site someone created using Flash for a hobby and people still use it then the person who created it may not have the time to rewrite the games to be in HTML5.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Are developers still making Flash games? I'd have thought they'd have a much better business case making games in HTML5, given Flash has been doomed for some time now.

I recommend avoiding/boycotting those sites. They'll soon get the message if everyone does that.

Many of the games made by King use flash, their Candy Crush games are popular and they definitely need flash to run

 

[yorkie]

Many of the games made by King use flash, their Candy Crush games are popular and they definitely need flash to run

If they're popular, they'll have a budget to re-write them

The teenagers I know who play in-browser games would just find alternatives. They get bored of playing the same games anyway.

The end of Flash has been coming for a long time! Apple announced they were ditching Flash as long ago as April 2010!

Thoughts on Flash is an open letter that was published by Steve Jobs, co-founder and then-chief executive officer of Apple Inc., on April 29, 2010. The letter criticized Adobe Systems' Flash platform and outlined reasons why the technology would not be allowed on the company's iOS hardware products, specifically iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

 

[dosxuk]

Are developers still making Flash games? I'd have thought they'd have a much better business case making games in HTML5, given Flash has been doomed for some time now.

#1 reason to use Flash over HTML5 is that it makes it much much harder for other people to nick your code. Anyone can download, read and edit any HTML5 script they want. Getting sane source code from a Flash file is much much harder.

 

[najaB]

The end of Flash has been coming for a long time! Apple announced they were ditching Flash as long ago as April 2010!

Nothing at all to do with Steve wanting control over what people could and could not run on 'his' platform.

I thought that I would check if this posting that I made last year was still the same. It still is, as stated in their instructions.

There is a non-Flash version available, unfortunately I no longer have the URL. I'll ask and see if I can find out for you.

 

[northwichcat]

The end of Flash has been coming for a long time! Apple announced they were ditching Flash as long ago as April 2010!

In 2010 HTML5 wasn't a viable alternative. Some say Jobs did that to try and get W3C to speed up the process of agreeing the final spec for HTML5.

 

[najaB]

Some say Jobs did that to try and get W3C to speed up the process of agreeing the final spec for HTML5.

Others say it was because omitting Flash and Java gave Jobs control over what could and could not run on 'his' platform.

 

[yorkie]

I'm no fan of Apple, but we really need to move away from Flash and Java web applets.

 

[najaB]

I'm no fan of Apple, but we really need to move away from Flash and Java web applets.

Java has been misused on the web, but I agree that in 2017 there's little need for Flash.

 

[DarloRich]

no idea what these things are or what they do. My life doesn't seem to be impacted by that lack of knowledge.

 

[skyhigh]

I'm more concerned by the fact that *all* the e-learning from my employer (a public body) uses Flash and only works on Internet Explorer. With budget cuts, I don't see them re-writing the whole lot any time soon...

 

[Crossover]

Are you at all surprised that an organisation the size of BT has not come up with a method to make the BT Wholesale Speed Tester and the requisite part of BT Desktop Help function without recourse to such an arcane computer product as Adobe Flash Player?

There isn't the incentive to, as the majority of people have Flash installed (as particularly do the subset of people interested in their internet speed)

The speed tester on BT's site is a rebadged version of the famous one made by Ookla

I thought that I would check if this posting that I made last year was still the same. It still is, as stated in their instructions.

It appears BT haven't made the switch yet. At PTT mentioned last year, this is probably because there was no incentive to do so. That may now change with the latest news about Flash

As PTT also mentioned, the speed tester appears to be a rebadged version of the Ookla speedtest, one which I tend to use
Ookla have had a HTML5 version of their speed tester out for a while now (be it still essentially in testing (beta)) which can be found at http://beta.speedtest.net/ - due to the number of crashes caused by Flash, the beta version tends to be my "go to" option now

 

[Crossover]

no idea what these things are or what they do. My life doesn't seem to be impacted by that lack of knowledge.

I'm sure you're not alone. Certainly I would hope if you asked my users at work if they used it or whatnot, they wouldn't know (I say such as it should just work and any sites that need it should appear seamlessly...well, as seamlessly as Flash can operate anyways!)

If the solutions you use, be it at home, work or elsewhere, rely on Flash and the provider of those solutions work to remove the reliance of their products on the plugin over the coming years, you should remain none of the wiser.

 

[Crossover]

One less plug in to manage is good by me - its use has slowly been declining over the past few years anyway and this should just finish it off.

One of the management systems I use (a VMWare solution should anyone be interested) still uses it, albeit they are engineering it out (and have progressed in doing so fairly well). I have seen the progress on this fairly rapidly in the last few weeks having upgraded said system from one released in 2012 through to one released earlier this year which has gone from "thick" client (a C++ one I think) through a Flash based web management interface (crashy, crashy, crashy!!!) through to HTML5 which is significantly smoother