Chrome to phase out Flash by the end of the year

[Tsutarja]

...and they're already going to start blocking most Flash content within the next month.

https://chrome.googleblog.com/2016/08/flash-and-chrome.html

So far the only thing Google says is that sites that only support Flash will be able to have their content shown at the acceptance of the end user.

What do you guys think of this transition? Should browser developers force this phase-out so quickly, or should they wait until sites transition over to HTML5?

 

[Venia Silente]

Should browser developers force this phase-out so quickly, [/quote

phase-out so quickly

quickly

The web development world has been waiting for the deprecation of Flash since at least 2008, and the users who have to suffer the viruses and all that for even longer.

I wouldn't call this "quick". It's not even "quick" by web standard adoption standards... But hey, it's about time we get to celebrate something, after all the recent snafus in web technology and development (Pocket, HTTP1.2, WebRTC leaks, EME, etc). HTML5 has been out for a good couple of years already. Honestly, the only people adapting new standards in technology slower than this ATM are the people working on the C++ ISO.

 

[Tsutarja]

It's about time to put the final nail in the coffin for Flash. Such a huge security hazard these days...

I definitely agree! It surprises me when I come across websites with video players and no HTML5 support whatsoever. :x

The web development world has been waiting for the deprecation of Flash since at least 2008, and the users who have to suffer the viruses and all that for even longer.

Hmm, I guess you're right there. However, a lot of news websites around the world who provide video coverage still have players that use Flash, and those are also a lot of the sites that people who are computer-illiterate go to as well, and they may not be aware of the vulnerabilities presented through Flash.

 

[LittleSkitty]

I'm not good with computers for the most part and I didn't even know Flash was bad

 

[Tsutarja]

I'm not good with computers for the most part and I didn't even know Flash was bad

It's alright, that's why we are here to inform you. :)

By the way, if you ever need help with computers or want to know something more, don't hesitate at all to ask myself or post in this section here :D

 

[0]

Lol, I thought this was dead in chrome already. Probably Java I'm thinking of.

Man, who still uses flash? Like, I get legacy, but not if its a hazard. It's like having pipes that are really rusted in the ground because of "legacy" and it would take actual work to replace them with something new. That's what I feel with any website that is still using this meme application.

 

[Lucario]

Yes, I've been wanting the death of flash since before it was even popular. HTML5 FTW (and even better if you have livescript)

 

[Maki-Nishikino]

things like speedtest i think requires flash but in all honestly i think they personally should wait till sites go to html 5 since i think some banking sites still use flash and some sort of java i believe

 

[Venia Silente]

since i think some banking sites still use flash and some sort of java i believe

Interestingly enough one would thing they'd be the first ones to switch (well, besides porn sites, as porn drives the winner in all web technology wars). If any banking site uses Java, Flash or both, then you as a client, well, you want those things gone, even if you don't know it, and your banking site, for the mere of still being alive on the internet, should have an above average IT department capable of having started the HTML5 migration as of at least two years ago.

Streaming sites are a curious beast. It makes sense for most of them to stick to Flash for as long as possible, while expanding their container support by the side, simply by virtue of the marketplace they've got with fixed hardware setups, like smartphones, that are pre-optimized for Flash or AVC video delivery. For anything else, the kind of thing you want on the desktop, we've had Opus and H264+ for a long time.

 

[esperance]

Such great news. So glad the end of Flash is almost upon us.

 

[Starry Windy]

So Chrome decided to phase out the support for Flash? I think the next question in line is if they could find some alternatives so that several sites that use Flash may have compatibility of some sort even though Flash is not used anymore, because I'm wondering how to play several games in Flash format if the support is broken, since some sites like Deviantart still have section dedicated to it.

 

[Tsutarja]

So Chrome decided to phase out the support for Flash? I think the next question in line is if they could find some alternatives so that several sites that use Flash may have compatibility of some sort even though Flash is not used anymore, because I'm wondering how to play several games in Flash format if the support is broken, since some sites like Deviantart still have section dedicated to it.

Honestly, websites that still rely on Flash need to be updated or buried if their webmasters refuse to work on alternatives. Flash is just a big security exploit waiting to happen these days, if it already hadn't happened.

Also, read this from the link in the OP:

In December, Chrome 55 will make HTML5 the default experience, except for sites which only support Flash. For those, you'll be prompted to enable Flash when you first visit the site.

 

[Brolaire]

I remember back in the day hearing from developers who thought the transition to HTML5 would be slow and... I'd say they were right lol. I understand why it takes companies a while to catch on to updates, especially when they get really invested in a certain work environment, but Flash is pretty much exclusively entertainment related. I'd agree that it's time has come and gone.

 

[Guest123_x1]

I didn't really think that Flash support would be phased out so quickly. I wonder if this is related to the decision years ago to discontinue the Linux version of Flash for all browsers other than Chrome (which I thought was a decision that, had it been made in the 1980s or 1990s, would have had Adobe and Google pursued by the US DOJ for antitrust violations)? With so many things on the Web that still require Flash, such as the majority of Web games, as well as nearly all speedtest programs, and even the web version of Pokémon TV, it'll take several more YEARS to rewrite everything in HTML5. If this recent move to phase out Flash doesn't get Web programmers moving, what will?

It's also too bad there isn't a viable third-party clone of Flash Player, since Adobe products have been absolute crap for several years now. At least most of today's web browsers have a built-in (internal) PDF viewer so most users don't have to download Acrobat Reader (which is typical bloated and security hole-ridden Adobe garbage as of late.)

I wonder how much different things would be today if Adobe never acquired Macromedia (the previous owner of Flash)... Seems like the quality of products acquired by Adobe and Microsoft drop significantly compared to the older versions developed by the previous owners.

 

[Altairis]

Thank god, I don't really know much about Flash at all but I get messages from my Chrome browser weekly that says "Shockwave Flash has crashed" and it's sooooo annoying. I don't know what this means really but I'm fine with it! Bye Flash!

 

[Drayton]

There's lots of site who use flash as site content such as flash games or flash chatrooms. but I guess I don't bother with chrome much. Sure, html5 is quick and all smartphones and tablets compatible with it without the needing to get plugin for it and html5 doesn't heat up your devices like flash would.

 

[Pinkie-Dawn]

Honestly, websites that still rely on Flash need to be updated or buried if their webmasters refuse to work on alternatives. Flash is just a big security exploit waiting to happen these days, if it already hadn't happened.

But then you have people who refuse to upgrade because they still haven't gotten use to growing with the current upgrades thus reverting back to using Flash (I think this is worth its own separate thread on whether or not technology is advancing too fast).

 

[CoffeeDrink]

I've been running Opera for a few years now, and with a few applications and tweaks here and there, Flash has been a thing of the past (at least for me) for awhile now. Sure, there has been an occasion or two where I had to enable it but those times are far and few between. Good to see Chrome is forcing this on everyone, a much better for everyone than what happened with Google+ and youtube...

 

[Kylie-chan]

You know, aside from the excellent points about it being a long overdue deprecation even for the slow webdev world, the massive expansion in mobile browsing (wherein Flash support is spotty at best cross-OS) actually has resulted in a large phase-out content-side anyway. There's still a lot of Flash content, but older internet users probably overestimate how much is important to your user experience; a lot of modern users probably have little positive experience with it.

The real loss is from an archival perspective; in my childhood, Flash seemed eternal. This is an ongoing problem for archivists, really, how to deal with rapidly changing technologies. Flash will be an interesting one.

 

[tranceking26]

It's about time it was killed off, but I will miss some of the flash games I sometimes play.