Flash Says Goodbye!
Adobe Inc., the American multinational computer software company, has finally pulled the switch and taken the final steps in a long-awaited and previously announced move: Adobe Flash Player is officially dead, with no more security updates or the likes to follow. The computer software that allowed people to create and view multimedia content, execute online applications and stream audio and video content was scheduled for discontinuation for December 31st, 2020.
Here is what this news entails. Adobe, the parent company and platform, would discontinue support for Flash and would block all Flash content running in their players from January 12th, 2021. What this means is that most pirated content websites for games, movies, music, television shows, and more would not be able to run if they require Flash to operate or have any Flash plugins embedded into their website framework. In fact, the company has even asked all users to check, uninstall and delete the software from their Windows and Mac devices through carefully given instructions on their website.
In fact, Adobe “strongly recommends all users immediately uninstall Flash Player to protect their systems”, meaning that it is not even about the software taking up space – once all support is suspended, Flash could even become dangerous for your systems! Some articles have suggested converting your websites and applications to Flash alternatives like WebAssembly, WebGL and HTML5.
The end of Flash’s licensing was first announced in July 2017 according to an article by The Verge with one Adobe spokesperson explaining, “We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.” In accordance with their announcement, companies have been separating their operations from the Flash Player and migrating them to HTML5 and other options so that when Adobe pulls the kill switch, they are not standing in the line of fire.
Here is how you can uninstall Adobe Flash Player from Windows and from Mac at the given links.
Let us know in the comments below if and how this change affects you or your company! We can help you migrate your systems – just contact us!
Credit: Adobe Flash Player
