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Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

support.mozilla.org

191–200 of 398 posts

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

#191

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?

* Streaming of live video using a single protocol across all browsers. (Some browsers don't even support a live streaming protocol)

* Adaptive bit rate video streaming (recorded or live)

Nice to have but not required:

* Full H.264/AAC support across all browser.

Unfortunately Flash is the only viable solution for the above right now.

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

#192
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not like html5 has all of the features required to replace flash cross platform. These changes force developers, especially those that work in video publishing to implement a variety of implementations for each device whereas flash gave us one platform that technically works on everything but is now disabled intentionally.

People in video publishing have had to deal with the iPhone since 2007. This is nothing new.

what, re-implementing their tech on a multitude of different browsers on desktop machines that previously worked fine? I'm just pissed because IMO flash is being removed before the cross platform media objects in html5 have been implemented in full across all the browsers.

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

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's strange, I found Flash programming very accessible. There's a huge amount of good learning material out there, and plenty of shortcuts and components you can use to do quite complex things. Flash components were really interesting, and made it easier for non-programmers, or designers to manipulate a user-friendly "API" of sorts within Flash. This was very powerful. Hugely underrated and conventionality forgott…

In terms of accessibility, my first two "serious" coding projects in high school were an interactive library map and a Latin flashcard quiz game written in Flash and Perl, respectively. At the end of the projects, I decided to focus my efforts on the more intuitive of the two languages, Perl. Granted, it's just an anecdote, but I wonder what I missed that made others find Flash so accessible.

In my experience at least, when I talk about "Flash programming" I'm not just referring to Actionscript, but the whole package, the whole Flash suite including manipulating the timeline and multimedia objects programmatically.

Sounds like you favour Perl over Actionscript. From what I know of both, they are not commonly compared! But as with many things in this business, it all depends on your needs, likes, and the project requirements.

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

#196
post #124
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not a feasible solution for the average end user.

It seems to work ok if you install it for them - I now tend to do that for non tech users who I help out. Though usually uBlock rather than AdBlock Plus. It's scary if you go to a download site these days how many fake download buttons there are near the real one if you don't do something like that.

One notable exception is Major Geeks. However, it's important to donate them a few bucks for staff and bandwidth because they are giving up a ton of money by not bundling crapware and confusing people. http://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/topdownloads/index.html

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

#197

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.

Unfortunately Flash still fills a couple gaps in browser support: live video streaming and adaptive bit rate streaming (live or recorded).

I posted a similar comment about it the other day: [0]

Personally I would like to see HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) [1] implemented in the all the browsers, it's a nice lightweight protocol and would be the path of least resistance since it's already used heavily in the mobile space.

[0] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9874338

[1] - https://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-pantos-http-live-streaming...

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

#198
Mark from Mozilla here.

To be clear, by "blocked" Flash we really mean enforced click-to-activate. User choice is always a #1 priority at Mozilla.

We regularly block vulnerable plugins. What made this block different was that we did it before Adobe made an update available. Now that Adobe has released an update, it is no longer true that every version of Flash Player is blocked in Firefox.

However, we're glad to see the conversation this has sparked. Personally I align with Alex Stamos regarding Flash, in the thinking that a formal EOL would be great.

I'd also like to use this space to make a shameless plug for Shumway, a project set on building a faithful an efficient renderer for the SWF file format without native code assistance. Ending Flash doesn't need to mean an end for Flash media. http://www.areweflashyet.com/shumway/

Edit: typo

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

#199
post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People in video publishing have had to deal with the iPhone since 2007. This is nothing new.

what, re-implementing their tech on a multitude of different browsers on desktop machines that previously worked fine? I'm just pissed because IMO flash is being removed before the cross platform media objects in html5 have been implemented in full across all the browsers.

I'm just disappointed that browser makers caved to Flash-using media companies demands and added closed-source DRM to the HTML spec. Thank you for demanding such an awful misfeature, Hollywood. Our starving culture will forever be in your DMCA debt.

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

#200
post #184

Adobe promising an update "during the week of July 12th"... That was last week. Or are they for some reason counting last week's Sunday as part of this week?!

They are an American company and America typically counts Sunday as the start of the week.
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