Adobe is planning to end-of-life Flash. Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.
keyplyr
11:05 pm on Jul 25, 2017 (gmt 0)
Adobe may be trying to milk the last drops of publicity by making this grand announcement, but I think the web has considered Flash dead for quite a while and has moved on.
Still, seeing the evidential reality of the Flash demise (good riddance), the EoL will help motivate those companies who still use Flash products.
I'm in an industry that unfortunately embraced Flash, with thousands of landing pages consisting of nothing but the flash file. My bot was clueless to mine the data needed so I had to manually go to each and every one of these pages and watch the movie to get the info. Needless to say, I was not a fan.
NickMNS
11:15 pm on Jul 25, 2017 (gmt 0)
The one great site that relies heavily on flash is MIT's Scratch programming website. A graphical interface that is used mostly by kids to learn how to code. I hope that they will update the site and not let it die.
lucy24
12:16 am on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
Retiring in 2020? Well, that explains why it keeps yapping at me to update Flash every other day. They’ve got several hundred backlogged version numbers to race through in the next three years.
keyplyr
12:48 am on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
Retiring in 2020? Well, that explains why it keeps yapping at me to update Flash every other day.
Get rid of that dinosaur FF and switch to ultra-fast Chrome and you won't see any of those intrusive nanny-notes.
(ducking from the metathesiophobian FF die-hards)
tangor
7:57 am on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
No need to duck. The world changed a few years back, probably very few left clinging to flash to toss things. :)
Chrome not required. FF, for example paints a very large warning. Serves the same purpose.
keyplyr
8:10 am on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
Flash is still on almost every professional website builder's list of services.
tangor
9:42 am on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
Not every, keyply, unless on yours? I haven't chatted or met a coder in 7 years who pharts with, much less uses Flash.
keyplyr
9:44 am on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
No tanger, I don't build websites for people and I have never put flash on any site.
tangor
9:45 am on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
? Who do you build websites for? Serious question!
[edited by: nonstop at 3:14 pm (utc) on Jul 26, 2017]
engine
3:09 pm on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
It's on a couple of machines used for testing purposes, so I like to keep it updated.
I don't have long too much longer to see the end of Flash Player and the frequent updates that try to install additional baggage. Flash had it's day a long while back and helped produce some excellent imagery and services, and some of the worst and horrible aspects of web dev.
I wonder how many people really still require it.
smilie
4:35 pm on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
Flash is great for embedded Youtube videos, such as in forums, which there are , probably , millions if not billions. Definitely thousands in a forum I'm moderating.
That is, of course, if you want at least some shreds of security for forum visitors and don't want the completely insecure frameset embedded in every page with whatever tracking they (Youtube, Google, whoever's behind..) want.
lucy24
6:32 pm on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
keyplyr, Firefox only puts up the Flash notice ("Firefox has prevented the outdated plugin Flash from running"--even if it wouldn't have run anyway because I've retained the default Ask First option) when it comes to a page that actually uses Flash. So how is that the browser's fault?
Does the current Chrome tell you which tab is making noise?
Besides, I'm still waiting for other browser families to recognize the font-size-adjust property, which has been in CSS for at least ten years. (Unfortunately, I'm also still waiting for browsers other than Safari to recognize "display: run-in", ditto. You can't win.)
keyplyr
7:33 pm on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
Does the current Chrome tell you which tab is making noise?
I don't have Flash loaded in Chrome. Nothing to send alerts. There is a little red indicator in the address bar when a site tries to load something I don't allow, but it's not a big warning like you report in FF.
In FF, Flash was already there, I couldn't get rid of it, so I turned it off and set permissions to never load it. Still FF sent warnings to update all the time. I got tired of it.
robzilla
9:52 pm on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
Don't forget that Flash has also been employed extensively for offline purposes. Educational tools, for example. I don't think they're milking this at all (nowadays Flash is not exactly hip to own, so why give it extra press?), they're just giving everyone a reasonable timeline. Getting a 500 error on the blog post, so I'm not sure if they address this, but I presume these applications will continue to work even when support ends, though that may also depend on the response of the major operating systems (Windows 10 ships its own Flash Player, for example).
keyplyr
10:08 pm on Jul 26, 2017 (gmt 0)
Windows 10 ships its own Flash Player, for example
I have several Windows 10 devices. None have Flash (I just checked.) But maybe it's renamed?
keyplyr
5:07 am on Jul 27, 2017 (gmt 0)
it's still used on some google pages
On that page it appears Flash is only used if the user's browser supports Flash.
When I go there with a sans-Flash browser, I just get a normal page... unlike some pages, the Google page doesn't try and force it... likely because it recognises the Chrome settings.
tangor
5:20 am on Jul 27, 2017 (gmt 0)
At one time Win10 had native codec support for FLV, but I think that was taken out midstream (long before Creators). One can install the codec without the flash player install and still play flv files in the integrated media player (I do it all the time). Unless one ties the browser to the media player for on line video, this is not a problem. Most never get this deep into codecs (no need!) and will not show up as a browser thing (it's not a player, only the codec to PLAY the file).
keyplyr
5:26 am on Jul 27, 2017 (gmt 0)
Yeah, I installed the flv codec but not the player when my machine was running Windows 7 Pro. When I upgraded to 10 Pro it remained and is still there.
I needed it for something, can't remember what. You're correct. It didn't affect the browser but would play flv files if I downloaded them to my desktop.
nonstop
3:43 pm on Jul 27, 2017 (gmt 0)
When I go there with a sans-Flash browser, I just get a normal page... unlike some pages, the Google page doesn't try and force it... likely because it recognises the Chrome settings.
it looks like they've changed it recently it did used to force the flash version, although the none flash version isn't very pretty
Pjman
3:12 am on Jul 28, 2017 (gmt 0)
You win Steve Jobs! RIP...
IPAD = Flash Death.
tangor
8:45 am on Jul 28, 2017 (gmt 0)
That's cold! (And a different deal, Adobe and Jobs could not have a meeting of the minds)
dougwilson
4:37 pm on Jul 28, 2017 (gmt 0)
What happens with all the .flv videos?
tangor
4:54 pm on Jul 28, 2017 (gmt 0)
Nothing. If codec is installed they will play in any media player.
robzilla
10:19 pm on Jul 28, 2017 (gmt 0)
I have several Windows 10 devices. None have Flash (I just checked.) But maybe it's renamed?
It could be I'm mistaken. I remember from last year that they pushed an update that broke tons of applications that used Flash, but from the help page [support.microsoft.com] on the update that fixed the issue I get the idea that it was only related to applications that had a Flash player embedded into them, i.e. standalone Flash-based executables. So no there's probably not a Flash Player installed with Windows by default, expect for some support in Internet Explorer and Edge. Should be interesting to see if those applications will continue to work.
tangor
2:50 am on Jul 29, 2017 (gmt 0)
Even if MS removes it from their OS one can always install it---and other popular codecs---with K-Lite or other codec collections. A codec is NOT the player (which has all the problems), and once registered with the player of choice, you can play existing FLV files just fine.
The REAL question is if that is necessary. Most video sites are offering different media types and flv is disappearing all by itself.
keyplyr
3:33 am on Jul 29, 2017 (gmt 0)
What happens with all the .flv videos?
@dougwilson - there's also flv to mpeg converters like winxdvd.com
dougwilson
1:48 am on Jul 30, 2017 (gmt 0)
Okay, from what I've found out since asking. The "flash is dead" effects embedded .flv web videos, which is what concerns me. Since most / all (?) are embedded in an adobe shock wave flash container (swf). FLV movies will be effected across the web because of this swf player and those who want to serve videos from their server will need to go the triple format route. From memory that's webm, mp4 and... can't remember... something with an O in it
Anyway that no flash and no universal browser format brought me to not housing and serving my own videos a few years ago and embedding them instead. Now it seems this eol is gonna cause more trouble. I removed the flash player plugin from my computer (Debian 8+) to see what I saw. One thing I noticed was that the overlay play button and some controls were missing or not working on some videos. I'm thinking there is some flash files involved there?
There's a "Video Without Flash" plugin for firefox I'm going to test just to see what happens. By the way I tested the videos that didn't work for me using the house Windows 10 and they wouldn't play and/or had the same button/control issues
dougwilson
11:57 pm on Jul 30, 2017 (gmt 0)
Even with this embed code a flash player plugin is required to play the .flv video
It's official: Adobe to kill Flash Player, end support by 2020
