Obsolete Technology (6)

Pulling the Plug on Adobe Flash

Overview

This week's blog topic will be slightly different in that I will be focusing on the old technology instead of the new. Around this time last year, Adobe announced that it would be discontinuing support for their Flash Player. By 2020, the company will cease to push out updates and distribution for this software.

What is Flash?

Adobe Flash is a software that allows users to view multimedia content in their browser. I'm sure many of you remember playing primitive games on your school's computer browsers when you were younger. A lot of those games were called "Flash games" because they required the Flash Player plugin to operate. Education, video, and game websites like "CoolMathGames" were only possible because of this software.

Why is it Being Discontinued?

In a few years, Adobe will be dropping support for Flash due to a couple of reasons. Primarily, it has simply become obsolete. For example, other standards such as HTML5 and WebGL have advanced to the point where they can do anything Flash could do, but better. Furthermore, HTML5 is a constantly evolving standard. Today it possesses many more functions and capabilities than it did last year. A few years ago, Steve Jobs even refused to allow Flash on iOS devices, arguing that HTML5 was fully superior. Here is a great article that summarizes HTML5: Link

Another reason Adobe will drop Flash is because of its inherent security risks. By design, Flash opens up vulnerabilities that unethical people can take advantage of. Flash needs to access a user's network to operate which is one reason why it is an easy target for hackers. In simple terms, the Flash Player is like a door that can be manipulated into allowing malicious code to enter a user's computer. Once inside, the code can abuse non-Flash systems, such as viewing personal data.

What Will Happen to Flash Reliant Resources?

If you're feeling nostalgic and want a trip down memory lane, fear not, the browser games of your childhood will probably still remain. Adobe has stated it intends to end Flash gracefully by continuing support until 2020. Developers will have time to safely migrate their content to other means. As far as "abandoned" media is concerned, even that will likely be preserved. 

Only the support and distribution for Flash is being discontinued. The software will still function. This means that using a virtual machine like VirtualBox (it basically emulates any operating system, like Windows 7), one could download the last version of Flash and any games onto it. Here, they would just exist in their current state forever. This is a complicated process, even for tech savvy people. I guarantee someone with a lot of free time will create a "prepackaged" virtual machine loaded with all the popular resources for public use.