Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere • Hacker News Board

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#21

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 8:11 AM UTC

afhof wrote: post #18

nivla wrote: post #11

As much as I want to be on the ditch Flash bandwagon, I can't. Reality hits hard, trivial things that gets done using Flash is impossible or requires a lot of workarounds when implemented in pure html/javascript. A few weeks back I was looking for a Javascript or HTML5 implementation for those bitly style "copy URL to clipboard" function. It just doesn't exist without flash (except in older versions of IE)! There are…

We're spoiled with Flash's mature functionality. HTML5 video and audio are still too early in their life cycles to supplant flash. HTML5 also lacks a good way to package a lot of files together into a single one like .sfw's do. I always imagine what it would be like to try and convert a website thats is made up of almost all flash like Newgrounds over to HTML5. Until there is an easy conversion path, flash will live…

> HTML5 also lacks a good way to package a lot of files together into a single one like .sfw's do

What? Data URIs, style and script tags.

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#22

Post by goggles99 » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 8:15 AM UTC

ghshephard wrote: post #2

Probably the saddest news I've heard all day. This gives web/application/browser developers yet another excuse not to move HTML standards forward to capture the flash functionality. I was honestly hoping that Microsoft would have put a stake in the ground regarding flash, and not carried it into their RT platform at the very least.

Perhaps it will create further competition for HTML5 so it will get up off it's ass and innovate. You could do everything that html5 promises in Flash 8 years ago. Never should it be accepted that a technology should win simply because it is an open standard (whatever that really means).

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#23

Post by lucb1e » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 8:15 AM UTC

I'm so glad I got Android and run Linux at home. Flash is nice to have for many websites that otherwise would lack functionality or simply don't work. Not installing it by default is one thing, but banning it is another.

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#24

Post by column » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 8:46 AM UTC

joenathan wrote: post #16

Tangentially relevant, I wouldn't go near IE10 on the desktop, my Bowser of choice is Firefox there, but for touch IE10 is amazing. Swiping left or right brings you back or forward, being chrome-less and swiping down or up to bring up the chrome works wonderfully, I find myself trying to swipe left or right on my Android phone and feeling aggravated at the inconvenience of lack of gesture control.

Use dolphin browser, it lets you set custom gesture controls

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#25

Post by UnoriginalGuy » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 9:27 AM UTC

opayen wrote: post #19

randomfool wrote: post #9

Another effect of Sinofsky's departure from Microsoft. This was the topic of a very heated debate internally 4 years ago, allowing the whitelist itself was a massive cave-in by Sinofsky who had set a fairly hard line against all plugins. I'm hoping all of the jaded Windows decision makers who so adamantly wanted to ban Flash have been sufficiently spanked. That said, I do wonder how well Flash will work on 7" tablets…

Flash is not available on Windows Phone.

Nor Android (discontinued) or iOS (never existed).

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#26

Post by syko » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 9:28 AM UTC

Call me paranoid, but this looks like a good tactic to spread the maximum amount of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt into the already-collapsing Flash community while still keeping support for the platform.

Reminds me of the OpenGL vs DirectX wars. (not implying the situation is similar in any way, only the FUD tactic :) )

http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/01/Why-you-should-use-OpenGL-an...

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#27

Post by cpeterso » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 10:12 AM UTC

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #25

opayen wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Flash is not available on Windows Phone.

Nor Android (discontinued) or iOS (never existed).

Adobe had internal ports of the Flash plugin for iOS. Ironically, Apple assisted Adobe in the early porting work. However, Apple assigned the work to an "intern" and the code returned to Adobe was such crap that it didn't even compile. Coincidence or diversionary tactic by Apple? Suspicious Adobe people called this "Project Boomerang".

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#28

Post by masklinn » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 10:28 AM UTC

nwh wrote: post #13

nivla wrote: post #11

As much as I want to be on the ditch Flash bandwagon, I can't. Reality hits hard, trivial things that gets done using Flash is impossible or requires a lot of workarounds when implemented in pure html/javascript. A few weeks back I was looking for a Javascript or HTML5 implementation for those bitly style "copy URL to clipboard" function. It just doesn't exist without flash (except in older versions of IE)! There are…

> here are --webkit only implementations for grabbing things from a clipboard but Seriously‽ That's crazy insecure, though I can't find any more information about it.

Generally in "HTML5", these interactions are only allowed during user-triggered clipboard events e.g. the developer can intercept a "paste" event and grab data from the clipboard (in order to try and get it under a different format or somesuch).

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#29

Post by masklinn » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 10:30 AM UTC

benologist wrote: post #17

joenathan wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is that title link bait?

Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black [1], turns on [2] Flash almost everywhere [1] did they just blacklist all Flash? [2] another way of saying betrayed, attacked, etc

So you're misreading Ars's clear statement in the most contorded way possible and thus Ars posts a "linkbait headline"?

Re: Windows 8’s Flash whitelist goes black, turns on Flash almost everywhere

#30

Post by fpgeek » Tue, Mar 12, 2013, 10:31 AM UTC

This doesn't seem like a big deal. Outside of Windows RT, Flash on the desktop (including the Windows 8 desktop) has been unrestricted the whole time. So this only affects Windows RT users and people using the formerly-called-Metro version of IE. I don't think there are many of those, so other than the symbolism of the "future of Windows" moving back towards Flash, I don't see how this has much impact.