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Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

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

#61

Post by HugoDaniel »

JonAtkinson wrote: post #57
HugoDaniel wrote: post #32

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". Over…

> We need a real open-source alternative to flash player. We quietly built the alternative to Flash over the last 10 years. It's called the web. A standard document in the web browser can play audio, video, display vector graphics, utilise OpenGL, supports direct drawing via Canvas, and it is deeply scriptable with a mature, open programming language. What else do you need?

Sorry, i meant alternative to the closed source flash player, keeping the same spec and not breaking compatibility. As implied by the comment.

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

#62

Post by thomasrossi »

jetskindo wrote: post #25

Flash always have security issues and Adobe do their best to fix them. On the consumer side of things, flash is not so bad. Sure search engines couldn't read it but there is amazing content generated through it. The content is,what matters and unfortunately the Web is littered with abusive flash objects auto playing videos, audio, full screen ads and those won't simply go away with flash. At least with flash I can ea…

It's not really a matter of ads, ads move the internet so they will always be there. It's a matter of security, flash has always been a source of flaws to be exploited. Like.. always, sometimes "trying their best" was really not effective.

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

#63

Post by jsingleton »

From the page:

"All versions of Adobe’s Flash Player plugin are currently deactivated by default, until Adobe releases an updated version to address known critical security issues."

This implies that it will be reactivated soon and this isn't a permanent block. It looks like the same mechanism that blocks old and vulnerable versions of plugins like Silverlight.

That said, I've not installed flash in years. I use Firefox as my main browser with no plugins and IE/Chrome have it embedded (both auto-update with no system restart required).

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

#64

Post by mschuster91 »

JackWebbHeller wrote: post #40
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...

On Windoze, I always go to google for "flash player distribution3" and install the MSI packages for enterprise deployment. That keeps me from the malware bundle.

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

#65

Post by paganel »

kozukumi wrote: post #50

God will Flash just die already. Firefox is my primary browser and I run it without Flash. On the very odd occasion I need it I have IE in protected mode which has Flash built in. If a site does use Flash I will seek an alternative though as I hate it that much. On a side note Firefox without Flash is so much smoother. IMHO it is the fastest and most stable browser when it doesn't have Flash bogging it down.

> God will Flash just die already.

5 to 7 years ago I would have said the same thing, I hated Flash with a passion. But now, when it's almost gone for good, I see that it had its reasons. For example the new Google Street View is many times slower and lags so much as to give me motion sickness (when it's not blocking my browser) compared to the previous version, which was Flash-based, and which used to work like a charm.

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

#66

Post by xmj »

I've been maintaining the FreeBSD port of the Flash 11 linux software for a year or so.

The one thing I have learned during that time is:

How to write a good VuXML entry.

I agree with the general sentiment of removing Flash, and will do my part in convincing others that FreeBSD (and, derived, PC-BSD and FreeNAS) should probably consider setting an expiration date for Flash, then at that date delete it.

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

#67

Post by hendry »

JupiterMoon wrote: post #51
magicalist wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Especially on Youtube which still uses Flash by default No since January[1]. Maybe you have an old cookie set or something? [1] http://youtube-eng.blogspot.com/2015/01/youtube-now-defaults...

If you disable Flash completely then Youtube works fine with HTML5 video. However, when Flash is set as click to play then Youtube still prompts to enable Flash. Annoying.

You're right. :)

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

#68

Post by jacobolus »

paganel wrote: post #65
kozukumi wrote: post #50

God will Flash just die already. Firefox is my primary browser and I run it without Flash. On the very odd occasion I need it I have IE in protected mode which has Flash built in. If a site does use Flash I will seek an alternative though as I hate it that much. On a side note Firefox without Flash is so much smoother. IMHO it is the fastest and most stable browser when it doesn't have Flash bogging it down.

> God will Flash just die already. 5 to 7 years ago I would have said the same thing, I hated Flash with a passion. But now, when it's almost gone for good, I see that it had its reasons. For example the new Google Street View is many times slower and lags so much as to give me motion sickness (when it's not blocking my browser) compared to the previous version, which was Flash-based, and which used to work like a ch…

The new Google Maps is also dramatically slower, laggier, and buggier than the old version which was a regular web app built to work on browsers from 2005.

I think the terribleness of recent Google web front-ends (not only Maps and Street View but also Search, Mail, Groups, Gplus, etc.) is mostly a product of incompetent management process internal to Google, rather than an indictment of web technology generally.

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

#69

Post by probably_wrong »

JonAtkinson wrote: post #57
HugoDaniel wrote: post #32

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". Over…

> We need a real open-source alternative to flash player. We quietly built the alternative to Flash over the last 10 years. It's called the web. A standard document in the web browser can play audio, video, display vector graphics, utilise OpenGL, supports direct drawing via Canvas, and it is deeply scriptable with a mature, open programming language. What else do you need?

> What else do you need?

I need all of those things to look exactly the same in each and every browser, instead of corrupted icons or broken navigation because the developer tested it in Chrome for Windows but neglected, say, Iceweasel for Debian.

I have yet to find a non-flash game capable of doing that. And if the alternative is "we should discard this closed binary that works in every platform in favor of this free-but-browser-dependant stack", I find that odd.

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

#70

Post by programmernews3 »

kozukumi wrote: post #50

God will Flash just die already. Firefox is my primary browser and I run it without Flash. On the very odd occasion I need it I have IE in protected mode which has Flash built in. If a site does use Flash I will seek an alternative though as I hate it that much. On a side note Firefox without Flash is so much smoother. IMHO it is the fastest and most stable browser when it doesn't have Flash bogging it down.

The problem is the long tail of sites or site features that don't work without flash and users who rely on those sites or site features.

I've heard Facebook video and last.fm streaming don't work without Flash for eg.

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