back to article Hi! I’m Foxy! It looks like you want to run Flash. Do you need help?

Developers of the Mozilla's Firefox Web Browser have indicated that version 55, due in August 2017, will be openly hostile to Adobe's Flash plugin. “As part of the ongoing NPAPI plug-in deprecation in Firefox, Flash content is now defaulted to click-to-activate in Firefox Nightly,” the developers write, adding that . “The …

  1. Ole Juul

    Yes!

    The sooner the better.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      The problem are not 'web' developers.

      The problem are some software management tools like Oracle and VMWare that uses Flash. And upgrading them may be very expensive. Browsers developers should stop to think that browsers are only used to update facebook pages and watch youtube. Just like software should stop to use browsers for management interfaces, they are under marketing control, they are not a stable platform.

      1. Blotto Silver badge

        Re: The problem are not 'web' developers.

        Keep an older portable version of the browser just for legacy management apps.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: The problem are not 'web' developers.

          Or untick the auto upgrade.....did this after they knackered Java.

          1. flokie

            Re: The problem are not 'web' developers.

            Upgrades include security fixes too...

            I'd suggest "downgrading" to the ESR release - currently 45.9, so that should buy some months at least before it catches up on the auto-disable-plugins releases.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: The problem are not 'web' developers.

          Yes, Agreed. I keep a portable firefox with auto update turned off that I only use to visit web admin tools that require flash or need modal pop ups etc.

          1. bombastic bob Silver badge
            FAIL

            Re: The problem are not 'web' developers.

            what kind of software developer would *EVAR* design a 'web admin' tool that makes use of FLASH???

            I can't think of enough pejoratives to describe THAT person. Put *THAT* on a resume, and it'll be circular-filed immediately.

            At least it doesn't use ActiveX... or does it?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The problem are not 'web' developers.

        The problem are some software management tools like Oracle and VMWare that uses Flash

        And these companies should be SEVERELY SMACKED for doing so too. Sloppy, insecure design is no excuse to keep using Flash.

  2. redpawn

    $5 Credit?

    What is FedEx getting from their users more than comes with the forms? I am suspicious to say the least. Bet it is worth more than $5 per user to them.

    1. luminous

      Re: $5 Credit?

      I would imagine it's cheaper for them to offer each customer a $5 discount, than to get their website rebuilt.

      Not that I am defending that attitude... but seems the most plausible explanation.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: $5 Credit?

        FEDEX (and DHL), have that $5 covered by the spurious "Duty" charges they send out to people.

        When FEDEX suddenly started adding a £3.50 "Duty" charge to a regular parcel delivery I get, I queried it, as the parcels declared value was 50p UNDER the threshold; when they got back to me the charge was £84.

        DHL started doing the same less than a year later; I bet they dont do this to corporate customers.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: $5 Credit?

          "I queried it, as the parcels declared value was 50p UNDER the threshold"

          Don't forget that the Customs duty calculation total may also have included the cost of the delivery service for a package.

          1. Andrew Moore

            Re: $5 Credit?

            Better than that is when they guess the value of the package, while ignoring the value on the customs declaration form. When I queried them about it, they told me it was because sometimes people don't put the correct value on the form. I told them that was a matter for Customs and Excise to pursue, not them. Strangely enough the extra charges were dropped once I got a case number back from Customs...

  3. Kevin McMurtrie Silver badge

    Good old days and denial of the present

    ZTE customer support told me that getting warranty service is as easy as finding an old computer in a library. I told them that libraries probably don't run Flash either.

  4. Tim99 Silver badge

    Dear BBC,

    Can we expect that this will finally kill Flash on your site?

    Yours faithfully,

    Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Dear BBC,

      Dear Disgusted,

      you may have noticed a few changes to our website. While we will indeed soon be getting rid of Flash, we will also be introducing some creepy web-DRM and forcing you to log on. We will also be sharing your data with the TV licensing authority and selected partners…

      IOW: be careful what you wish for.

      1. Tim99 Silver badge

        Re: Dear BBC,

        Dear Charlie,

        Why should I be careful? I don't live on the Isle of Wight.

        It must be time for my SCAN (Senior Citizen's Afternoon Nap).

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge
          Headmaster

          Re: Dear BBC,

          I don't live on the Isle of Wight.

          Acronyms 101

          IOW — In other words

          IoW — Isle of Wight

          But you maybe right: does the BBC have a sinister plot for denizens of that fair isle?

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Dear BBC,

        "[...] we will also be introducing some creepy web-DRM and forcing you to log on."

        It appears that the BBC are being a bit naughty with their mandatory login to iPlayer.

        The login persists across their other pages too - and they appear to intend to use it to automatically "personalise" news and tv programme pages unless you untick a lot of boxes. Shades of Facebook.

        I am now using Chrome for iPlayer only - and "no login" Firefox for any other BBC pages.

        1. paulf
          Big Brother

          Re: Dear BBC,

          @AC

          "It appears that the BBC are being a bit naughty with their mandatory login to iPlayer. The login persists across their other pages too - and they appear to intend to use it to automatically "personalise" news and tv programme pages unless you untick a lot of boxes. Shades of Facebook."

          Their web pages (anything on bbc.co.uk domain) suddenly started demanding location info about a month or so ago. I've blocked it (Desktop Firefox) but I'm sure most won't because they've "got nothing to hide" and "ooh, it means I get my local news and weather and all that".

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Dear BBC,

            "[...] it means I get my local news and weather and all that".

            You can give them a local news and weather "location" without logging in. The weather forecast and map are sufficiently broad that you can pinpoint a town at least 20 miles away.

            I am thinking of going over to StartPage to look at BBC news/information pages. You can run Linux Mint Mate in an Oracle VirtualBox under W7 - or possibly under W8. Add dnsmasq to only allow startpage.com and ixquick-proxy.com and ixquick.com. That means you can view the BBC pages' content through the ixquick https proxy. Anything else is blocked - unless an html uri uses an explicit IP address instead of a domain name.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Dear BBC,

            they scrape your IP anyway. I once tried, in vain, to get them to respond to HOW they can locate me. After several attempts to send a message through their proper channels, the message (automated) I got, boiled down to basically: "f... off!"

            OK, to be precise, it was an auto-response, something to the effect that "we don't have to respond to all the queries".

            but on the log in note, the development on the iplayer worries me, because this is a blatant attempt to grab as much data, as possible (your gender, your age, your POSTCODE... all to "better offer personalized viewing experience" and "we take the matters of privacy with utmost care, blah blah blah".

            So, it's back to torrents for me.

      3. paulf
        Terminator

        Re: Dear BBC,

        @ Charlie Clark

        PS - This will also help our suddenly renewed war on get_iplayer; as used by people who rejected Flash long ago.

    2. Dave Bell

      Re: Dear BBC,

      The way the BBC is handling pictures also happens to trigger ad-blockers. There's the bbc.co.uk domain for the web pages, and a lot of the content is coming from servers on the bbci.co.uk domain.

      A domain-name like that feels like somebody pretending to be the BBC

      1. Tim99 Silver badge

        Re: Dear BBC,

        @Dave Bell

        At the moment whois shows bbci.co.uk as registered to the BBC.

        1. Charles 9

          Re: Dear BBC,

          "At the moment whois shows bbci.co.uk as registered to the BBC."

          As I recall, bbci is short for "BBC Interactive" and represents the BBC's earlier forays into combining television and internet to create interactive programming. It's a legitimate domain that the BBC has had for about a decade or so.

  5. veti Silver badge

    One format down...

    How many to go?

    All media formats should be click-to-play. Autoplay of anything - even GIF, arguably even Javascript - is an abomination that we should never have begun tolerating in the first place. It only encouraged them.

    1. DropBear

      Re: One format down...

      Funny you should say that - "Toggle Animated GIFs" does wonders for quite a few GIF-heavy pages for me (eg. I don't dare set foot on Kickstarter and lots of sig-flaunting forums without it) and I've been using Flash on click-only for over a year now...

  6. Brian Miller

    NoScript: already solved

    I installed NoScript years back to stop JavaScript and Flash. Really, once the browser can't run content, the web becomes a (sort of) safer place. (I wish there was a NoScript for Chrome, too.)

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: NoScript: already solved

      It also becomes a quieter, less hectic, less intrusive place.

    2. gypsythief

      Re: NoScript: already solved

      uBlockOrigin provides a good alternative to NoScript for Chrome. You have to enable its Advanced Mode, which gives you access to some nice fine grained script filtering.

      I've bobbed a screenie of it action on the The Register here:

      http://i.imgur.com/nRyteQu.png

      1. TheTor

        Re: NoScript: already solved

        Check out Web Developer (https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/web-developer/bfbameneiokkgbdmiekhjnmfkcnldhhm).

        A bit overkill but can block javascript, cookies, plugins, popups, cookies, styles, form validation... pretty much everything.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    If politicians ever did anything

    Apart from deregulating markets for corporate buddies, they'd regulate IoT and heavily fine corps like FedEx. C'mon this is like taking a wrecking ball to the net, just so that FedEx don't have to fix out-of-date tech (they probably fired the staff long ago)! ... But oh no, that would be like Communism or something!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: If politicians ever did anything

      Politicians will not regulate against the market, whilst people are willing to install the rubbish then they are accepting the implications of the install even if unknowingly.

      If politicians did regulate against unsafe software then most of the US software market would be unable to comply given that the hardware is similarly unsafe.

      Whilst people continue to believe that software cannot be written without errors/vulnerabilities remaining in the "finished" product then the best they can do is attempt to blacklist the worse offenders.

      If you want the politicians to do something wholistic to fix this once and for all then making the software/hardware houses responsible for any losses due to the failure of their designs would be the way to go. However this would require the world to sign up and would quickly put all the big names in IT out of business overnight, the US is not going to give up their control of IT just because it doesnt work.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    This is Good and Bad news

    For anyone who travels a lot with work etc. The sheer number of government, bank, travel, and public transport sites etc, that insist on Flash is amazing! You can't pick your flight seat on Lan / Latam w/o Flash etc! Latin-America and many parts of Asia here's looking at you, didn't you get the memo???

  9. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Boffin

    Until Adobe oficially kills Flash

    many sites won't do a thing.

    I'm already not using a number of sites that insist on Flash. Yes, I'm voting with my feet and not spending money with them. Perhaps a diminishing value of online sales might get an FD or two to get things done but somehow I doubt it.

    Die Flash Die and your execution won't be a day too soon.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Until Adobe oficially kills Flash

      But what if turns out to rise again like a zombie. Without a head, so sorry, folks, the old "shoot 'em in the head" ain't gonna work.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    F off

    Yea!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: F off

      Verily!

      1. Charles 9

        Re: F off

        Careful. What if they F back...without the lube?

  11. Adrian 4

    Hey firefox, stop blaming the victims.

    Nagging us won't do a thing to the publishers. Go after them.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @adrian4

      How are you suggesting they go after the publishers? and which publishers are you thinking about oracle/adobe or the website devs?

      Whilst people are willing to install X to load website Y then nothing will change, however if all the users become aware of the implications of installing X they may decide not to use Y and use Z instead. Z being a company who do not force X on their customers.

      Thus users can either accept the implications of X and not bitch when they get pwned or they can vote with their feet and help make X an unsellable option in web design.

      1. Charles 9

        Re: @adrian4

        But what if Z doesn't exist? It's like with medical equipment manufacturers still using outdated operating systems to stay legally-compliant. If EVERY site that has the W you need REQUIRES the use of Flash, then you're stuck with a Hobson's Choice (as in Take It Or Leave It). Some people may be willing to walk away, but for some it can result in collateral damage, such as not being able to use a piece of computer equipment for a job which means it'll have to be replaced (a more-expensive proposition).

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      "Nagging us won't do a thing to the publishers"

      ACK. I propose a "never install, never nag" button instead, effectively a NO FLASH, EVAR function that's enabled by default. *FLASH* 'em if they can't take a joke.

      1. Charles 9
        Devil

        So what happens when you really DO need Flash and you don't even know it, then? Hate to be at the Help Desk when THAT happens, especially when the caller happens to be someone high up.

    3. Orv Silver badge
      Facepalm

      But then how would we watch old Homestar Runner episodes?

  12. jelabarre59

    Crunchy

    After reading this article, I realized Crunchyroll is still using Flash for playing through a browser. I suppose the only workaround would be to make a UWP Runtime for Linux and load the "Metro" Crunchyroll player under that (presuming of course that isn't running Flash or worse).

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