Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Petition to open source Flash

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 255 posts

Re: Petition to open source Flash

#151

Post by snvzz »

mtgx wrote: post #5

Isn't Flash player's code super-messy by now? (a hint towards that could be all the vulnerabilities found for it every week). Open sourcing it would have to dramatically improve the code quality and in a relatively short period of time (2 years max), otherwise browser vendors would never go along with it (nor should they). Sounds like a daunting task, especially if no big organization/leader takes up the task of clea…

It would be good to have it as the reference player, for archivist purposes and to help the already existing open efforts achieve higher compatibility. This doesn't mean it has to ever be run as a browser plugin or outside of a sandbox (such as a VM, an emulator or a bsd jail).

Re: Petition to open source Flash

#152

Post by niutech »

dragonwriter wrote: post #126
captainmuon wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think Flash is insecure in principle, or in implementation? I think it is very much a problem of the implementation. I don't know if Adobe/Macromedia could have done better, or if the backwards compatibility requirements make it impossible to maintain, but I'd like to see for myself. Anyway, you have no reason to be afraid. All mayor browsers are dropping support for plugins anyway. An open source flash player…

> An open source flash player will most likely be used standalone, and not in a browser. It'll most likely be modified to run in browsers, too, e.g., via compilation to WebAssembly and suitable web-platform replacements for the low-level IO, etc., implementations.

There is Mozilla Shumway which is an open source Flash runtime in JS.

Re: Petition to open source Flash

#153

Post by niutech »

roblabla wrote: post #114
pan69 wrote: post #106

Notice: The idea is not to save Flash Player, but to open source Flash! What exactly is being referred to here? The Flash authoring tool I assume? As in, the application that you install on your desktop and use to create Flash animations with? I think a better description of the purpose of this petition might be a good idea. A lot of people conflate Flash and Flash Player.

No, they're talking about the player. But they don't want to save it from doom, but instead to preserve it so all the current code targeting flash can still potentially be used. Think of it like an emulator. It would still be stripped from browsers, but you could download the SWF and play it locally, in the "flash emulator". Except it'd be based on the real thing, and as such, would achieve perfect compat right away.

You still will be able to run your SWF files after 2020 using the latest Flash Player Projector.exe.

Re: Petition to open source Flash

#154

Post by niutech »

gamedna wrote: post #77

Flash has generated a tremendous amount of assets that will be lost. Preserving them for historical reasons is extremely important but i am far less interested in preserving the technology than preserving the idea or creation itself. I would love to see an effort around conversion or transcoding flash assets to other technologies. For example, flash movies being rendered to an open standard or flash games being autom…

They will not be lost after 2020. They will run as usual using the Flash Player Standalone Projector or Swiff Player.

Re: Petition to open source Flash

#155

Post by pan69 »

niutech wrote: post #153
roblabla wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, they're talking about the player. But they don't want to save it from doom, but instead to preserve it so all the current code targeting flash can still potentially be used. Think of it like an emulator. It would still be stripped from browsers, but you could download the SWF and play it locally, in the "flash emulator". Except it'd be based on the real thing, and as such, would achieve perfect compat right away.

You still will be able to run your SWF files after 2020 using the latest Flash Player Projector.exe.

That's what I thought as well. All the latest versions are here:

http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer.html

Re: Petition to open source Flash

#156

Post by k__ »

notacoward wrote: post #19

No no no no NO. It's time to get rid of Flash. Open-sourcing will make it live forever. Flash has very little to offer that is not at this point duplicated (or improved upon) by others. It's also woefully insecure. "Many eyes make all bugs shallow" will only work for the most trivial bugs in the most common code paths. Plenty of vulnerabilities will remain. In open source, they'll be even easier for attackers to find…

What is a real alternative?

What tech can do what Flash does and is as easy and approachable as Flash for non-developers?

I mean sure with WebGL and mad computer graphic skills no problem, but with out?

Re: Petition to open source Flash

#158

Post by fulafel »

dragonwriter wrote: post #126
captainmuon wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think Flash is insecure in principle, or in implementation? I think it is very much a problem of the implementation. I don't know if Adobe/Macromedia could have done better, or if the backwards compatibility requirements make it impossible to maintain, but I'd like to see for myself. Anyway, you have no reason to be afraid. All mayor browsers are dropping support for plugins anyway. An open source flash player…

> An open source flash player will most likely be used standalone, and not in a browser. It'll most likely be modified to run in browsers, too, e.g., via compilation to WebAssembly and suitable web-platform replacements for the low-level IO, etc., implementations.

The jit won't port to current wasm, so it would be slow.

Re: Petition to open source Flash

#159

Post by phkahler »

wildbunny wrote: post #25
notacoward wrote: post #19

No no no no NO. It's time to get rid of Flash. Open-sourcing will make it live forever. Flash has very little to offer that is not at this point duplicated (or improved upon) by others. It's also woefully insecure. "Many eyes make all bugs shallow" will only work for the most trivial bugs in the most common code paths. Plenty of vulnerabilities will remain. In open source, they'll be even easier for attackers to find…

Very narrow minded. Tens of thousands of games rely on flash, along with many movies and general history of the internet. Open souring it will preserve countless hours of lost work.

It does not need to be open source. Just save the plug-in along with your legacy browser and legacy OS and run it all on an emulator. Making it open source is an excuse to allow people to continue flash development in some way.

Re: Petition to open source Flash

#160

Post by flashman »

notacoward wrote: post #19

No no no no NO. It's time to get rid of Flash. Open-sourcing will make it live forever. Flash has very little to offer that is not at this point duplicated (or improved upon) by others. It's also woefully insecure. "Many eyes make all bugs shallow" will only work for the most trivial bugs in the most common code paths. Plenty of vulnerabilities will remain. In open source, they'll be even easier for attackers to find…

The security issues with Flash are due to it being closed-source. Make it open-source and a lot of the problems that lead it to being EOLed will be solved.
Post reply on HN