back to article Adobe will kill Flash by 2020: No more updates, support, tears, pain...

Adobe has officially set a kill date for its beleaguered Flash. The Photoshop giant said today it plans to end support for the hacker-prone multimedia browser plugin by the end of 2020. This means no more updates for Flash Player after that date and the end of support on many browsers, including Chrome, Internet Explorer and …

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  1. JLV
    Happy

    Hallelujah

    1. BillG
      Holmes

      Cuban

      Buggy multimedia nightmare won't see President Zuckerberg's inauguration

      Mark Cuban is going to run for Pres as a Dem.

      You heard it here first.

      1. Michael Thibault

        Re: Cuban

        And disappear like smoke when he comes in second?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      BTWholesale Speedtest

      Don't worry, I'm sure BT/Openreach (endorsed by slimeballs regulator Ofcom) will be using Flash and their shitty BTWholesale Flash based tester long past 2030 when their "up to" bamboozled, obfuscated Pointless G.fast has long become a can of "legacy firmware worms" to fault find, with Ofcom backtracking saying they were always "Technology Agnostic", wiping their hands of the problem, "Not us - folks, we just provide oversight".

      Fcuking Weasels, the lot of 'em.

      Regulation endorsed attack vectors, and they wonder why there is such a problem with malware infected bots out there. (No one should be forced to Adobe Flash, especially endorsed by a regulator like Ofcom, one hand not knowing what the other is doing)

      BT Spoon fed MP's haven't a clue -"Don't worry BT will do the right thing. Yeah Right".

    3. jennyhannb

      It when come true When Flash Video became popular. [url=https://19216811wiki.com/]192.168.1.1[/url]

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dear Adobe

    On behalf of the ENTIRE computing public.

    What took you????

    If they shortened the deadline to 18 months, that would really get the ball rolling.

    And the date, just so happens to coincide with the EOL of windows 7.

    Coincidence?

    1. inmypjs Silver badge

      Re: Dear Adobe

      "On behalf of the ENTIRE computing public. What took you????"

      Well. yes. Flash was always a bad idea and Adobe did a terrible job, but, I don't recall Adobe forcing anyone to use it. A multitude of people are to blame for it becoming popular and still being around.

      1. katrinab Silver badge

        Re: Dear Adobe

        When Flash Video became popular, the alternative it replaced was Real Player, and that was much worse.

        1. macjules

          Re: Dear Adobe

          Syphilis is worse than scabies, but you still would not want either ... a bit like Flash.

          1. quxinot

            Re: Dear Adobe

            >Syphilis is worse than scabies, but you still would not want either ... a bit like Flash.

            Yes, but you still wanted to get laid (get the content that caused the problem).

      2. Lotaresco

        Re: Dear Adobe

        "A multitude of people are to blame for it becoming popular and still being around."

        In my experience mostly Italian "web designers" who don't seem to have ever got their heads around HTML. Most Italian business sites are a 640x480 window in the middle of the page in which runs a shonky bit of Flash. Can't be resized, printed and the only page that you can link to is the "Home" page. Pointless flash done using Flash.

      3. Antron Argaiv Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Dear Adobe

        But only Adobe is to blame for the constant and unrelenting "You need to upgrade Flash Player", which seems to show up almost every time I try to play a video.

        What is so unique about Flash that requires an upgrade to the latest version to play a damn video? VLC, for example, seems to play everything, and I can't remember when I last upgraded it.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dear Adobe

        "Flash was always a bad idea and Adobe did a terrible job, but, I don't recall Adobe forcing anyone to use it. A multitude of people are to blame for it becoming popular and still being around."

        This. This is just one of those tools that allowed graphic designers, albeit talented ones, to start designing webapps with no idea about security or IT technology and then have the gall to say they were "IT Professionals". No! No! No!. You're artists and graphics professionals, simply making a cartoon robot dance in a browser window to the tune of "We Will Rock You" does not make you a veteran IT professional!!

  3. m0rt

    Yeah.

    Will it though? Really? Talk about zombie code...

    BBC will probably pay them to keep it running because, well mind control? I mean maybe the AI Musk is woffling on about is actually ALREADY HERE working out of the networked MILLIONS of INSTALLS of FLASH!!!

    Or not.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      How many millions will the NHS

      be spending in 2025 to patch Flash enabled applications on Windows XP systems I wonder?

      Or will it be billions?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: How many millions will the NHS

        As someone who works in the NHS, we haven't had XP machines anywhere in our hospitals for years. However if you look at many commissioning group GP phone servers, you'll find most are XP.. and will run that for the next decade unless something is done about it.

        1. Adam 52 Silver badge

          Re: How many millions will the NHS

          You might not have, but "90% of UK hospitals still use Windows XP" according to the headlines in almost every IT news source at the end of last year.

          1. Glenturret Single Malt

            Re: How many millions will the NHS

            I seem to recall an explanation (perhaps even in this venerable organ, I cannot recall exactly where) that that statement actually means that you could find at least one computer running Windows XP in 90% of NHS hospitals. Not quite the same thing but that's the press for you.

            1. Adam 52 Silver badge

              Re: How many millions will the NHS

              Yes, but the AC above said "we haven't had XP machines *anywhere* in our hospitals". A statement than can be disproved by the same one XP box as used to generate the 90% number.

              It's a purely pedantic argument. Well it is until that one XP box becomes the entry point for some nasty.

    2. Richard 22

      Why would the BBC have any interest in keeping Flash running? They've been transitioning over to html5 video for ages. I suspect they'd have ditched flash ages ago if it weren't for the fact that they have to keep things working for non-technical people who may not be running anything more modern than IE8

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        As an ex IM&T junior manager at county level, the XP boxes I was aware of were acting either as basically the command interfaces for MRI/Xray machines, and to serve a web server app to allow authorised clinicians to access scans digitally without needing to print and post hard copy, or were required to upload firmware updates to devices such as AED's.

        Neither of those uses require flash. There is a gaping difference between "90% of the NHS still runs on exclusively XP desktops!" and "90% of NHS trusts has an XP laptop in a cupboard occasionally used for doing firmware updates on half a million quids worth of perfectly functioning AED's"

        IIRC part of our mitigation strategy for the remaining XP boxes was a new image locked down beyond the point of paranoia which had neither flash or Adobe reader installed.

        1. razorfishsl

          if it runs VMware , it needs flash

  4. a_yank_lurker

    Message from Web Team to PHB

    You know that new technology we want to use instead of Flash? Well, Flash is officially dead in 3 years. Can we start migrating now?

    Web Team

    1. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge

      Re: Message from PHB to Web Team

      What Technology? Does it help my Golf Swing?

      Does it involve me spending money that should otherwise go in my Bonus?

      What's the rush. You guys are the best so a wet Friday Afternoon after you have been down the pub (I'm not buying btw) should see it done and dusted.

      Your (N)ever present PHB

      sent from my Galaxy S8+ from the 19th Hole.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Message from PHB to Web Team

        More likely sent from an iPhone

    2. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
      Coat

      Re: Message from Web Team to PHB

      "Well, Flash is officially dead..."

      GORDONS ALIIIII......wait....what?

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Message from Web Team to PHB

      Dunno about yours, but our management see GDPR as something for "next year" and not worth bothering with. Three years away might as well be after the end of the universe.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unfortunately, "end of support" for Flash doesn't mean that Flash players already out there will self-destruct, nor that all websites will remove Flash content.

    What it means is that Flash bugs won't be fixed any more after that date.

    Hopefully, browsers will blacklist the Flash plugins But I bet some people will clamour to have a way to re-enable it, so they can still run their legacy apps.

    1. LewisRage

      Or we'll have to carefully deploy an older version of Firefox and prevent updating to allow the plugin to run, doubling down on the problems that will arise from this.

      I'm all for the death of flash and have been purging it where possible but I know of one fairly hefty national UK business who have just invested a fair chunk of cash into a new Learning System that is entirely dependent on flash.

      I am sure that their plan for that high 6 figure investment doesn't involve scrapping it in under 3 years.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh dear, whilst this is great news for just about everyone, I do hope a particular Japanese pet game developer migrate from Flash, as I'd quite like to see what would be the 17th year anniversary event in 2020.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why wait?

    Seriously, they could just announce that they will only produce security updates through the end of this year, and the laggards who have stuck with it all this time can move on. If they haven't paid attention to all the years of security and performance issues and stuck with it until now, Adobe giving them until the end of 2020 isn't any different than giving them to the end of 2017. They're going to sit on their hands and do nothing until at least July 2020 anyway, because they don't care.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Why wait?

      Because what about all that VERY expensive equipment that can ONLY be controlled by Flash? And whose manufacturer refuses to replace the software without replacing the whole VERY expensive thing?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Why wait?

        Which equipment are you referring to? Not saying there isn't such a thing, just that I've never seen it.

        Besides, how the absence of updates prevent this very expensive equipment from working? Keep it off the internet and you don't care if Flash is secure or not. Would you even want to update the flash on it, since that alone might break something?

        1. TRT Silver badge

          Re: Why wait?

          Identity Services Engine Admin portal from Cisco, for example. At least the version our network group have just deployed. Seemed most bizarre that the very thing I'd been tracking down and killing on my user's machines for the past year over security concerns was suddenly required to be on my machine when the network team implemented the new authentication system.

          1. AMBxx Silver badge

            Re: Why wait?

            O2's Business Web site too. I can't get an invoice without using a browser that supports Flash!

        2. phuzz Silver badge
          Facepalm

          Re: Why wait?

          I'm not sure if they still do, but Watchguard firewall boxes used to require Flash for the admin interface. I'm assuming they've moved on in the last few years, hopefully.

          1. Peter2 Silver badge

            Re: Why wait?

            When did WatchGuard System Manager ever use flash? Serious question, i've used 3 generations of watchguard kit and never seen flash used once.

            1. phuzz Silver badge

              Re: Why wait?

              Er, it was a while ago, but I think it was an XTM box? I don't know if that used this "WatchGuard System Manager" of which you speak. I can't remember the model, but it would have been a cheap one.

              1. Jason 24

                Re: Why wait?

                I run many Watchguards, never noticed them needing flash. But then I rarely use the web interface, WSM is much better, prep all your changes in one go and upload.

                Now if only Fortigate could come up with a half decent client, with some decent debugging tools as well please.

        3. Alister

          Re: Why wait?

          Which equipment are you referring to? Not saying there isn't such a thing, just that I've never seen it.

          VMWare VCentre web client is still Flash based. :(

          1. Fuzz

            vmware

            The latest versions of 6.0 and 6.5 don't require flash they have an all html5 client.

            I prefer to use the fat client for anything that still works.

    2. nijam Silver badge

      Re: Why wait?

      > Adobe giving them until the end of 2020 isn't any different than giving them to the end of 2017

      Adobe giving them until the end of 2020 isn't any different than giving them to the end the month.

  8. Dwarf

    Bit academic

    Since most informed people have stopped using it anyhow.

    I expect that the majority of users are just the corporate's out there who aren't sure whats still using it - hint - probably more malware than line of business applications.

    Obviously they are less likely to be running an up-to-date browser that understands HTML5 at which point the need for flash is significantly smaller. .

    I've been running without it for a long while, there are a couple of sites still whine that they want to install it - no I just go elsewhere to providers that have updated to not required this evil technology.

    1. J 3
      Paris Hilton

      Re: Bit academic

      "most informed people have stopped using it anyhow"

      I am afraid "informed people" is far, far from the majority of the populace.

  9. earl grey
    Angel

    but, but..what about my flash pronz?

    Must convert now...

  10. Joe User
    Happy

    Good-bye, Adobe Flash Player

    Don't let the door knob hit you on the way out....

  11. Palpy

    Webmasters, get your act together!

    Remote-troubleshooting a relative's PC, I asked him to go to a speed test website. Yep -- it said he needed Flash. OK, try another -- same thing, must have recent version of Flash enabled. Finally we did find a couple that didn't use Flash, and the "I need a new computer, this one's sooooo slow" turned into "I need a better connection, this one's sooooo slow". Which was the point of the exercise.

    But come on, web-slingers! We need a stampeding herd migrating away from Flash! Now!

    1. Steve Aubrey

      Re: Webmasters, get your act together!

      speedof.me

      HTML5, true blue, through-and-through. Don't know how far it strays from the 'murrican shores.

      insert stdDisclaimer.h - not a shill, no connection, etc.

      1. Palpy
        Pint

        Re: Webmasters, get your act together!

        Yes indeed. We used http://www.bandwidthplace.com/. SpeedOfMe gives about the same results, of course.

    2. John H Woods Silver badge

      Re: Webmasters, get your act together!

      Ookla does actually have an insufficiently publicised nonflash version

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