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Sunday, 19 July 2015

July 19, 2015
(Image: elianemey via Pixabay)

9 Reasons Flash Must Die, And Soon

Whether you're a user or a developer, the reasons to leave Flash in the past keep multiplying.

(Image: elianemey via Pixabay)
Alas, poor Flash. The trajectory from cool innovation to Web must-have, to reviled technology was dramatic, but there's no doubt that the time has come: Flash has to go.
Flash entered our lives around the same time as the World Wide Web, though it began its existence as a drawing program for PenPoint OS. It wasn't until 1996, after Macromedia bought the original developer, that Flash received a new name and a new mission -- enabling animation on websites. Macromedia continued to develop Flash until the company was acquired by Adobe in 2005. Under Adobe, Flash became a Web animation juggernaut.
It didn't take long for the backlash to build. Flash had some notable issues and at least one famous detractor -- Steve Jobs's 2010 open letter listing the reasons Flash wasn't part of the iOS universe was for some a watershed moment. The hate for Flash wasn't universal, though: Air, the system that allows Flash to be used as the basis for standalone applications, was named the best mobile development environment at CES for both 2014 and 2015.
Air isn't enough reason to save Flash, though. It's no longer required, and the alternatives have become better with each passing year. This week, another nail in the coffin arrived when Mozilla prevented Flash from running on its Firefox browser. It's time, therefore, for Flash to ride into the sunset (probably in an animated clip featuring kittens riding cartoon unicorns).
Whether you're a user or a developer, the reasons to leave Flash in the past keep multiplying. Still looking for your reason to delete Flash from your online life? We've put together a list of nine reasons we find compelling. If we've missed the reason that finally made you switch, let us know. And if you're one of the poor, deluded souls who thinks that Flash is still the best web-thing since animated sliced bread, please let us know that, too. We promise we'll be kind.
Flash Is Hungry Let's run this down: The world is going mobile. There's no doubt that more and more of our computing lives happen on handheld devices. Those handheld devices are getting smaller. It won't be long before you can use the edge of a smart phone to take care of unwanted body hair. And with the thinner devices comes a smaller set of batteries. Because Flash is an interpreted language, it's heavy -- so heavy that, in conjunction with the way Flash renders video, it's an absolute battery killer. And it's not just a battery killer on mobile devices. Want to see how quickly the battery on your laptop can run to zero? Load your browser with a bunch of Flash-heavy pages in tabs and let them all run. You can hear the giant electronic sucking sound as the battery winds toward zero. (Image: TaniaVdb via Pixabay)

Flash Is Hungry

Let's run this down: The world is going mobile. There's no doubt that more and more of our computing lives happen on handheld devices. Those handheld devices are getting smaller. It won't be long before you can use the edge of a smart phone to take care of unwanted body hair. And with the thinner devices comes a smaller set of batteries.
Because Flash is an interpreted language, it's heavy -- so heavy that, in conjunction with the way Flash renders video, it's an absolute battery killer.
And it's not just a battery killer on mobile devices. Want to see how quickly the battery on your laptop can run to zero? Load your browser with a bunch of Flash-heavy pages in tabs and let them all run. You can hear the giant electronic sucking sound as the battery winds toward zero.

Flash Is Naive Many development systems have numerous internal checks to make sure that the code developed is safe for distribution to the big wide world. Flash isn't one of those systems. Flash has, historically, allowed all kinds of code to run. To make life better, Flash has provided access to a variety of juicy system components in its attempt to allow the best and most impressive animation. Now, the good folks at Adobe have improved Flash and its security over the years, but there are still several qualities that make Flash a security weakness -- we'll get to those shortly. In the meantime, know that Flash's naive trust in developers and code would be charming -- if it were running on someone else's system. (Image: joduma via Pixabay)

Flash Is Naive

Many development systems have numerous internal checks to make sure that the code developed is safe for distribution to the big wide world. Flash isn't one of those systems. Flash has, historically, allowed all kinds of code to run. To make life better, Flash has provided access to a variety of juicy system components in its attempt to allow the best and most impressive animation.
Now, the good folks at Adobe have improved Flash and its security over the years, but there are still several qualities that make Flash a security weakness -- we'll get to those shortly. In the meantime, know that Flash's naive trust in developers and code would be charming -- if it were running on someone else's system.

Flash Is Closed There's a lot of really good software out there that's proprietary. There's also a lot of very good software that comes from one or another open ecosystem. When you're looking for weakness, though, a closed system can legitimately be considered a point that's not particularly strong. It's not only that Flash is closed: It's really pretty darned closed. That closed nature means that many of the security researchers who might work on improvements in open systems are locked out -- something that seems to be of little concern to criminals and hackers. Funny, that. (Image: ashishacoway via Pixabay)

Flash Is Closed

There's a lot of really good software out there that's proprietary. There's also a lot of very good software that comes from one or another open ecosystem. When you're looking for weakness, though, a closed system can legitimately be considered a point that's not particularly strong.
It's not only that Flash is closed: It's really pretty darned closed. That closed nature means that many of the security researchers who might work on improvements in open systems are locked out -- something that seems to be of little concern to criminals and hackers.

Flash Is YAMF (Yet Another Media Format) When you want to save a graphics file or animated selection, you're generally presented with an extensive list of options. Flash, with its lovely .SWF (a format used by nothing else) presents you with yet another media file type to keep track of, store, and consider in the panoply of files that go into a modern website. Is a file format inherently evil? Well, no, but life is complicated enough. When there are animation options available that don't require you to use YAMF, do yourself a favor and cut through the media clutter. (Image: OpenClipartVectors via Pixabay)

Flash Is YAMF (Yet Another Media Format)

When you want to save a graphics file or animated selection, you're generally presented with an extensive list of options. Flash, with its lovely .SWF (a format used by nothing else) presents you with yet another media file type to keep track of, store, and consider in the panoply of files that go into a modern website.
Is a file format inherently evil? Well, no, but life is complicated enough. When there are animation options available that don't require you to use YAMF, do yourself a favor and cut through the media clutter.

Flash Isn't HTML5 HTML5 is the new foundation of Web page development and it eliminates virtually all need for Flash. And here's the thing: HTML5 is a programming language that has notable similarities to HTML4. Flash doesn't. Flash isn't the single most complicated programming environment to learn and use, but unless you live your entire professional life inside the Adobe Creative Cloud it's different from any of the other languages you use. Who really needs that kind of complication? Go with the new standard, and use the time you save for more productive activities -- like watching more cat videos. (Image: W3C via Wikimedia Commons)

Flash Isn't HTML5

HTML5 is the new foundation of Web page development and it eliminates virtually all need for Flash. And here's the thing: HTML5 is a programming language that has notable similarities to HTML4. Flash doesn't.
Flash isn't the single most complicated programming environment to learn and use, but unless you live your entire professional life inside the Adobe Creative Cloud it's different from any of the other languages you use. Who really needs that kind of complication? Go with the new standard, and use the time you save for more productive activities -- like watching more cat videos.

Flash Is Whack-A-Mole Central Flash has presented such a rich set of targets to hackers that its developers have spent the last decade (and more) chasing an ever-evolving series of vulnerabilities and exploits. And the nature of Flash means that this game is going to continue. To a certain extent, this is a game that every set of developers plays with the hackers determined to keep them busy. In Flash's case, though, its nature as a development system, interpreter, and browser plug-in means many more holes in which those darned hacker-moles can hide. Not even Adobe's animation can provide enough hammers to use on their pointy little heads. (Image: ClkerFreeVectorImages via Pixabay)

Flash Is Whack-A-Mole Central

Flash has presented such a rich set of targets to hackers that its developers have spent the last decade (and more) chasing an ever-evolving series of vulnerabilities and exploits. And the nature of Flash means that this game is going to continue.
To a certain extent, this is a game that every set of developers plays with the hackers determined to keep them busy. In Flash's case, though, its nature as a development system, interpreter, and browser plug-in means many more holes in which those darned hacker-moles can hide. Not even Adobe's animation can provide enough hammers to use on their pointy little heads.

Flash Lets You Be Stupid Remember that game of Whack-a-Mole we mentioned? One of the ways that Flash programmers deal with the exploits is by releasing updates. And users of Flash can blithely ignore each and every one of them. There are thousands of users now using versions of Flash that date back years -- versions filled to overflowing with known vulnerabilities and problems. If some of those users are on your payroll, then they might well provide a path from their funny coffee-break animated shorts straight into your corporate files. (Image: ClkerFreeVectorImages via Pixabay)

Flash Lets You Be Stupid

Remember that game of Whack-a-Mole we mentioned? One of the ways that Flash programmers deal with the exploits is by releasing updates. And users of Flash can blithely ignore each and every one of them.
There are thousands of users now using versions of Flash that date back years -- versions filled to overflowing with known vulnerabilities and problems. If some of those users are on your payroll, then they might well provide a path from their funny coffee-break animated shorts straight into your corporate files.

Flash Makes Browsers More Complicated Flash is most often deployed as a browser plug-in. On one hand, that means that Flash elements can be active as soon as they load on a Web page. On the other, allowing that 'always on' capability means your browser gets heavier and heavier, with a number of side effects -- all of them bad. Heavy browsers are less stable, more power-hungry, slower, and less secure. That combination is one of the reasons Mozilla has announced that Firefox is disabling Flash by default. Now, if you then want to watch Flash elements, you have to go into the controls and re-enable Flash -- yet another complication. (Image: PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay)

Flash Makes Browsers More Complicated

Flash is most often deployed as a browser plug-in. On one hand, that means that Flash elements can be active as soon as they load on a Web page. On the other, allowing that "always on" capability means your browser gets heavier and heavier, with a number of side effects -- all of them bad.
Heavy browsers are less stable, more power-hungry, slower, and less secure. That combination is one of the reasons Mozilla has announced thatFirefox is disabling Flash by default.
Now, if you then want to watch Flash elements, you have to go into the controls and re-enable Flash -- yet another complication.

Flash Kills Productivity Have you ever found a great piece of Web animation and then another, and another? Then you looked up and an hour had passed? So have your employees. And we're blaming Flash. Cute Web animation is the greatest enemy of productivity since March Madness. Without all those nifty singing cartoons about the latest crop of moronic politicians, we could all probably work three-day weeks and get as much done. Darn you, brilliant Flash animators! See, an article like this is proof positive that you don't need Flash to take up your time. Great journalism can do that job just fine, thank you. Now that you've spent the time with us, what do you think? Have we made a compelling case against Flash? Or are you more determined than ever to hold on to this miracle of modern animation programming? Let us know -- just, please don't do it with Flash animation. We don't have that much time on our hands … (Image: PublicDomainPictures via Pixabay)

Flash Kills Productivity

Have you ever found a great piece of Web animation and then another, and another? Then you looked up and an hour had passed? So have your employees. And we're blaming Flash.
Cute Web animation is the greatest enemy of productivity since March Madness. Without all those nifty singing cartoons about the latest crop of moronic politicians, we could all probably work three-day weeks and get as much done.
- July 19, 2015