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Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

support.mozilla.org

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Re: Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

#31

Post by barrkel »

hendry wrote: post #30

One option was to go down the Click-to-Play route which offers a HORRIBLE UX. Especially on Youtube which still uses Flash by default. Disabling Flash however, Youtube actually seamlessly falls back to HTML video. Well done. But I can't help but think, outside the Youtube world (BBC for e.g.). LOTS is going to break. I wouldn't take this tact with my parents or clients.

I much rather click to play over autoplay of videos, including on Youtube.

My browsing workflow involves a lot of middle-clicking links to open them up in background tabs. Autoplaying video is major annoyance in this context.

Re: Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

#32

Post by HugoDaniel »

Unfortunately in this case avoiding the problem won't make it go away.

Many old sites will stop working (my first site was done in flash) as well as many games that are still heavily played today by millions of people. Also flash IDE provides a good introduction to programming for self-taught kids these days: many of them still do their first code in flash after clicking on "that strange icon next to photoshop".

Overall this is a good example of prolonged trusting a binary blob. IMO we will always tend to do what is more comfortable and we should strive for openness and transparency in the tools that most people rely for everyday.

The problem persists as long as there are people installing the plugin or "enabling" it.

We need a real open-source alternative to flash player.

Re: Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

#33

Post by mrweasel »

I uninstalled Flash a few days ago, because I didn't want to deal with the updates anymore. Since Flash was unbundled from Mac OS X it has become a pain to update. I simply don't understand why I need to go to the Adobe site to get the updates.

Flash isn't super relevant anymore anyway, the main thing it's used for on my computer is Flash tracking cookies, and I can do without those. I do wonder how some of the tracking and retargeting companies will deal with the decline of Flash though. We asked a partner to stop using Flash for tracking, their response was that it's the best way to doing user tracking. Hopefully they'll change their mind soon.

Re: Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

#34

Post by benguild »

cousin_it wrote: post #6

When all browsers disable Flash, a ton of old artistic content will become unaccessible. I'm thinking specifically about Homestuck animations and minigames, but other people will have their own favorites. Is there a good transition plan?

However, it will also make it more secure by making it less of a target for hackers. If you have to enable it only for certain content … then great. That’s how it should be at this point.

Look at what happened to Java applets.

Re: Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

#35

Post by eterm »

rockdoe wrote: post #10

Seems like only a temporary block. Mozilla isn't brave enough to put it out of its misery like it belongs. Still some big sites using it though, like Twitch.

My firefox has been blocking flash for a while (I've not updated it, so it doesn't load the old version.). The only site I switch to Chrome for has been twitch.

For anything else html5 video has been generally working. I've noticed a lot fewer annoying adverts too which is a bonus.

Re: Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

#39

Post by franciscop »

mrweasel wrote: post #33

I uninstalled Flash a few days ago, because I didn't want to deal with the updates anymore. Since Flash was unbundled from Mac OS X it has become a pain to update. I simply don't understand why I need to go to the Adobe site to get the updates. Flash isn't super relevant anymore anyway, the main thing it's used for on my computer is Flash tracking cookies, and I can do without those. I do wonder how some of the track…

The only other place where I've found that flash is relevant is in auto-play videos, so now with flash installed but disabled is basically removing the auto-play 'feature', which is really neat.

Re: Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

#40

Post by JackWebbHeller »

mrweasel wrote: post #33

I uninstalled Flash a few days ago, because I didn't want to deal with the updates anymore. Since Flash was unbundled from Mac OS X it has become a pain to update. I simply don't understand why I need to go to the Adobe site to get the updates. Flash isn't super relevant anymore anyway, the main thing it's used for on my computer is Flash tracking cookies, and I can do without those. I do wonder how some of the track…

The update process is horrendous. Redirect to Adobe's website, follow a 3-step 'wizard' - where Step 2 is a placebo 10-second loading bar saying it is "initialising" - and Step 3 is an advertisement for installing other crap from Adobe.

After all that you have to download a DMG, close all your applications and reinstall from scratch. Why not just build in an auto-update in the background and be done with it...

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