Flash Player coming to an end

[exile360]

As most are likely aware, the end is approaching for one of the most widely used browser plugins in internet history; Adobe's Flash Player which enjoyed widespread use by the likes of most popular sites throughout the years and played the role of video player for countless hours of streaming video content from the likes of YouTube and other popular sites (as well as pr0n sites; or so I've been told ) as well as the base for tons of popular online web browser based games, is approaching its end of support as Adobe plans to retire the plugin starting in 2020.  In preparation of this event, Firefox has already disabled Flash by default as has Google in Chrome, and now Google is planning to remove Flash results from searches by the end of the year (more on that here).

With the end approaching, I would recommend removing/disabling Flash completely if you can live without it, which should be much easier as fewer and fewer sites use it these days, with most opting instead to use native HTML5 or other alternatives (such as Microsoft's own Flash alternative Silverlight).  In the meantime if you still use Flash, be sure to keep it up to date to guard against any known security vulnerabilities (the latest build is 32.0.0.270 for most browsers) and follow the guidance provided in this topic to keep it patched and up to date (and you'll also find a link to Adobe's official Flash uninstall tool in that post as well if you've decided to go ahead and remove it from your system).  I expect Microsoft will publish updates for its Edge browser soon which includes an embedded version of Flash Player to disable or remove Flash functionality before long.

As a long time user of Flash, I will miss it somewhat, but I am glad that we now have native alternatives like HTML5 which are (hopefully) more secure.  You can read Adobe's official EoL announcement for Flash here for further details.

Now if we could just get everyone off of Java ...

[AdvancedSetup]

The Java monster from the owners has no intent to stop development. They do want payment for use by business now. At the moment, personal home use of the Runtime is still free but not for any business

 

[Mickyyy]

is the news true? it will be a loss for me, as I am using adobe flash player in my website. anyways, Thanks for the news.

[exile360]

You're welcome.  Yes, it's true.  Unfortunately with the near constant barrage of exploits/vulnerabilities and security issues, browsers and websites are getting away from using third party extensions/plugins for any kind of scripting/active content as much as possible (this is also why Java is used much less often by websites these days along with Microsoft Silverlight) and with modern browsers being capable of displaying streaming/animated content via native HTML5 functionality, the need for a plugin like Flash is far less critical than it once was.  Web browsers these days have so much advanced functionality built in that they don't require as many extensions/plugins/add-ons to do many of the things that such tools were once used for and the entire web industry as a whole is moving towards increased security through limiting the use of such extensions/add-ons, and in fact both Google and Mozilla are already well into their roadmaps for progressively ending Flash support as the 2020 EoL date for Flash approaches.

I already linked to Google's info on the subject above, and you and read Mozilla's input on the subject here and you'll find Microsoft's most recent announcement regarding Flash support in Edge and their new Chromium based Edge browser here.

It's the end of an era, and while I'm all for security and increased functionality (HTML5 is pretty awesome), I am going to miss Flash.  At one time it was by far the most widely used browser extension, and most websites used it by default for active content like streaming video and complex webpage animations and interactivity.  If you're curious and feeling nostalgic for Flash Player, you might give this article a read: Flash And Its History On The Web

[Mickyyy]

ohh okay I got it. Thanks for providing such useful answer. well now I don't know how to use tool based websites such as emoji keyboard which requires adobe flashplayer to be enabled on chrome. otherwise scripts won't run properly. 

[exile360]

They will either have to adapt it to work without Flash, or they will find that most users eventually won't be able to use their site, especially once Flash support is dropped for modern browsers (meaning a user won't even be able to install Flash manually if they wanted to).

[David H. Lipman]

I use Flash for easy online Content for my HTML FakeAlert ScreenShow.  I'd hate to find a new format that is as easy to generate, update and upload.

FakeAlert-Screens.pdf  /  Flash Version

[sman]

Wow @David H. Lipman a myriad of alerts collection.. could not play flash version(.swf) had to convert .swf to .mp4 and watch in player.. 

I too will miss flash, since I use chrome extn's to capture flash media (YT, other sites embedded media)..

Edited December 5, 2019 by sman