What's the deal with Flash in Mavericks

[pianodude123]

I just performed a fresh install of Mavericks and am choosing not to restore anything from backups. Now, when I go to sites that have flash (such as www.speedtest.net) it asks me to install flash. Ideally, I would like to not install any third party software that's not part of Apple's sandbox environment. Is this just something that's a necessary install? What do you all do?

 

[Nermal]

If you want to view Flash content then you need to install Flash. It's as simple as that.

I've installed it.

 

[pianodude123]

Okay I'm going to see if I can go without it then. How about Java? Is that included out of the box?

 

[Nermal]

Nope, that's not included anymore either. It's all bare-bones these days

 

[satcomer]

Okay I'm going to see if I can go without it then. How about Java? Is that included out of the box?

No you have to install it. IMHO you don't need Java unless you have a program using Java.

 

[GGJstudios]

I just performed a fresh install of Mavericks and am choosing not to restore anything from backups. Now, when I go to sites that have flash (such as www.speedtest.net) it asks me to install flash. Ideally, I would like to not install any third party software that's not part of Apple's sandbox environment. Is this just something that's a necessary install? What do you all do?

There is no need to avoid useful 3rd party software if that functionality doesn't exist in Apple software. Just be careful where you get software and you'll be fine.

 

[LukeHarrison]

Just install Google Chrome and use that, it comes complete with the latest Flash plugin, and is sandboxed in the browser, saving you from having to install it systemwide.

 

[Weaselboy]

I just performed a fresh install of Mavericks and am choosing not to restore anything from backups. Now, when I go to sites that have flash (such as www.speedtest.net) it asks me to install flash. Ideally, I would like to not install any third party software that's not part of Apple's sandbox environment. Is this just something that's a necessary install? What do you all do?

I never install Flash and just use Chrome (which includes Flash) if I need to use a Flash site, which is more and more rare.

http://speedof.me

Here is a good speed test site that does not use Flash.

 

[glenthompson]

I just performed a fresh install of Mavericks and am choosing not to restore anything from backups. Now, when I go to sites that have flash (such as www.speedtest.net) it asks me to install flash. Ideally, I would like to not install any third party software that's not part of Apple's sandbox environment. Is this just something that's a necessary install? What do you all do?

I have flash installed but also use the Click to Flash plugin for Safari so that flash videos don't automatically load.

 

[pianodude123]

I would install chrome, but I don't like how it runs updates and contacts Google servers in the background even when it's not running.

 

[Weaselboy]

I would install chrome, but I don't like how it runs updates and contacts Google servers in the background even when it's not running.

I certainly understand your concern there, but for me anyway the Chrome autoupdates have not caused any problems.

 

[NoBoMac]

Despise! Google's update process. What a resource hog!

So, to disable automatic updates, from a terminal:

defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I remember a few years ago, I had installed Picasa on my macbook. I decided I preferred iPhoto, and deleted the app. A week later, I got an auto-update prompting me to re-install Picasa because the app was corrupt or missing files.

Ya, like the whole thing! In the end, I actually had to wipe OS X to get the friggin auto-updater to disappear. It wasn't even in the startup items.

Never again will I install anything Google on any of my computers.