Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Adobe to Stop Distributing and Updating Flash in 2020

Zirel said:
Remember when Apple was evil because they rejected flash on the iPad?

Remember when Android was the best OS ever because it had a slow and buggy version of flash that was essentially useless?
Click to expand...

Remember that Steve Jobs only wanted Flash to be gone because it was platform independent and that it would help developers write software that would --ALSO-- work on COMPETING platforms? That's the real reason why Steve Jobs was so outspoken against Flash.

Remember that Flash also enabled a lot of software that is still being sold in Apple's App Store - and you just don't notice that it's actually Flash? (Basically every game ever released by Amanita Design ("Machinarium", "Samarost"), for example. Or "Rebuild" by Sarah Northway.

Flash made good on a lot of promises that Java made back in the day but failed to deliver. Yes, the implementation of the Flash platform was buggy -- but what platform isn't? There are so many things ****ed up beyond any repair in macOS or Windows that it's not even funny anymore, so let's keep it realistic here.

And even as a pure web browser plugin, Flash delivered something that no other standard actually guarantees: Flash movies/apps/pages look and behave exactly the same in any browser on any operating system. Good luck with that with HTML5.

Also, from a developer perspective, the Flash development environment and ActionScript made web development FUN -- everything else that I've seen for web development in the last TWENTY YEARS is a ROYAL PAIN in direct comparison. Modern web applications exist DESPITE HTML(5) and JavaScript and all the other crap in existence, not because of it. Flash, despite all of its many flaws, was the only development that did not make you hate the web and web technologies right from the start.

The death of Flash is an actual loss, because there still is nothing out there that can properly replace or succeed it.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Naraxus, mrex, bowmasters and 1 other person
VXDyrPc.jpg
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tubamajuba
Winni said:
The death of Flash is an actual loss, because there still is nothing out there that can properly replace or succeed it.
Click to expand...

And you're right.

Adobe, knowing that Flash is still hotter than burning jet fuel, said it isn't stopping it NOW, but in 2020. In three years time, and especially with Adobe saying "NO MORE," I think we'll get our replacement and soon.
 
Marx55 said:
Get rid of obnoxious Flash once and for all. Use HTML5 instead.
Click to expand...

Yeah, sure. HTML5, the bundle of vastly different and mostly unrelated parts and technologies that are only connected by a common name and version number. Hmm.

Sometimes it helps to look beyond the marketing brochures and actually look at the underlying technologies - and not believe everything that the Powerpoint says.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bowmasters and Demo Kit
ForkHandles said:
What a lot of hate for a product tha revolutionised the web!

It's time may have come and gone but in its heyday it was the only tech that you could write one and render on every desktop computer.

And now we have CSS, which still renders differently on different browsers. We have Apps that must be rewritten for each platform you want to support. All hail the mighty Apple but they really haven't made the web experience that much better.
Click to expand...
No, Flash is a proprietary engine that allows arbitrary code to run on your machine. There was nothing magic about it. It's not that much different from just downloading and running an exe from some some random site.
It also hurt the open-web from the start. If a platform didn't have good a Flash client, your web experience suffered. And unfortunately most of Adobe's clients outside their Windows client were poorly supported.
We were heading to a point where a single company held sway over how we accessed the internet and what devices would be blessed to do so.
This was worse than browser wars, this was OS wars.
Flash is and was bad, because it's fundamental concept was bad.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Garsun and bowmasters
BMcCoy said:
Yup.

And as much i hate it... as much as i am keeping my iphone SE partly because of the headphone jack... I would reluctantly concede that in 5 years, we will all be embracing wireless and looking back and wondering why we ever stuck with wired headphones.
Click to expand...
Because we will have Bluetooth 6 by then :) Current Bluetooth has a lower audio quality and introduces delays not experienced with wired headphones.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BMcCoy
MacRumors said:
The elimination of Flash and Flash Player should not heavily impact most users because popular browsers have already moved away from the format.
Click to expand...
Except it's a usability nightmare for average folks, because 1) websites have been ludicrously slow to migrate away from Flash, and 2) neither Safari nor Chrome do a good enough job of informing the user why websites aren't displaying properly, and how to enable it when necessary.
 
MadeTheSwitch said:
Finally! Should have happened a few years ago. Flash is just horrible.
Click to expand...

You and many Apple fans are just misguided (actually fooled by Apple). You suffered not because Flash was bad but because Apple was too lazy to support it. Apple fans hate a lot of technologies which are missing in Apple ecosystem. Very often they also eagerly embrace those technologies once they become available on Apple products.
 
falainber said:
You and many Apple fans are just misguided (actually fooled by Apple). You suffered not because Flash was bad but because Apple was too lazy to support it. Apple fans hate a lot of technologies which are missing in Apple ecosystem. Very often they also eagerly embrace those technologies once they become available on Apple products.
Click to expand...
I mean, Flash is great if you like battery-draining products filled with security holes.

And I wouldn't say that Apple fans hate technologies that debut in other ecosystems, rather, they get tired of people declaring the downfall of Apple because they weren't the first to have it. Never mind the fact that Apple almost never has the first implementation of a new technology anyways.
 
Why wait nearly 3 years? I think everyone is ready for this to be gone right now. I basically have stppped going to sites that use or need Flash to present content, video or otherwise.
 
AdonisSMU said:
I've had it blocked for years already.
Click to expand...

Same. To the extent that if a website uses flash and the content isn't accessible because I have it blocked, I just won't use that website and will go elsewhere.

From an experience perspective flash has been a garbage product since...always.
[doublepost=1501025036][/doublepost]
tnypxl said:
Why wait nearly 3 years? I think everyone is ready for this to be gone right now. I basically have stppped going to sites that use or need Flash to present content, video or otherwise.
Click to expand...

There are enterprise level ramifications in place. As good client relationship management adobe can't dump support for large customers without notice and time to transition away to something else.
 
err404 said:
No, Flash is a proprietary engine that allows arbitrary code to run on your machine. There was nothing magic about it. It's not that much different from just downloading and running an exe from some some random site.
It also hurt the open-web from the start. If a platform didn't have good a Flash client, your web experience suffered. And unfortunately most of Adobe's clients outside their Windows client were poorly supported.
We were heading to a point where a single company held sway over how we accessed the internet and what devices would be blessed to do so.
This was worse than browser wars, this was OS wars.
Flash is and was bad, because it's fundamental concept was bad.
Click to expand...
With respect isn't that the Apple App Store method of delivery.

Plenty of files that only run on one operating system.

My point is that we haven't come an inch further forward in the goal of high quality interactive render once websites.
[doublepost=1501026969][/doublepost]Security holes
Tubamajuba said:
I mean, Flash is great if you like battery-draining products filled with security holes.

And I wouldn't say that Apple fans hate technologies that debut in other ecosystems, rather, they get tired of people declaring the downfall of Apple because they weren't the first to have it. Never mind the fact that Apple almost never has the first implementation of a new technology anyways.
Click to expand...
again iOS has had plenty of these. Remember the good old days when any app could steel your contacts list.
 
  • Like
Reactions: bowmasters
Tech198 said:
This is probably the biggest news since Batman & Robin became a team.. :p

I guess all those Flash sites (porn most likely) will die off after upgraded OS's start reporting the outdated flash versions will no longer work with updated browsers. And since Adobe will cease Flash, u can't get an update... so traffic to such sites will decline as a result until they adopt HTML 5 or better.

Think 3 years is long enough though?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure those sites have quickly moved beyond Flash already (the major ones, anyway).
 
Apple keeps winning 10 years later. Android is shook. She could never.
 
GoT.jpg


I hate HBO for that!


My friends call me crazy and paranoid. I deleted Flash 3 years ago because of its security holes and will never install it again. Even if that means no HBO GO for me at the moment.
 
  • Like
Reactions: fluamsler
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back