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Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

bleepingcomputer.com

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Re: Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

#21

Post by TheOperator »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #6

They really shouldn't make Flash completely unavailable to download. They're cutting off a lot of legacy content with cultural significance. Yes, using unmaintained software is bad for security. However, the alternative of forcing people to use third party sources—which will all be somewhat shady, since Flash is technically under copyright—is even worse for security! Now, you might be downloading a fake, malicious co…

It really doesn't matter insofar that the internet is going to keep copies of shockwave installers for decades long after adobe would ever realistically keep offering downloads.

I do think it would be cool for them to keep offering downloads of the installer. Adobe should be proud of shockwave and show that pride by keeping the installer out there.

Re: Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

#22

Post by Wowfunhappy »

TheOperator wrote: post #21
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #6

They really shouldn't make Flash completely unavailable to download. They're cutting off a lot of legacy content with cultural significance. Yes, using unmaintained software is bad for security. However, the alternative of forcing people to use third party sources—which will all be somewhat shady, since Flash is technically under copyright—is even worse for security! Now, you might be downloading a fake, malicious co…

It really doesn't matter insofar that the internet is going to keep copies of shockwave installers for decades long after adobe would ever realistically keep offering downloads. I do think it would be cool for them to keep offering downloads of the installer. Adobe should be proud of shockwave and show that pride by keeping the installer out there.

> the internet is going to keep copies of shockwave installers for decades long after adobe would ever realistically keep offering downloads.

But how can you be sure these are legitimate copies of Shockwave and/or Flash?

Re: Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

#23

Post by godzillabrennus »

propelol wrote: post #20
godzillabrennus wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still hurts that they killed Fireworks. Best photo editor ever for quick web ready edits.

The Sketch before Sketch

Yep. Except sketch still isn’t up to delivering the same level of usability that fireworks had.

Not to mention it was bundled in Creative Suite.

Re: Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

#24

Post by godzillabrennus »

mortenjorck wrote: post #7

> Released in 1995 by Macromind, Shockwave brought interactive content and games to the web in a way that was never seen before. In 2005, Adobe purchased Macromind and all of their interactive web products such as Flash and Shockwave continued under the Adobe name. Not Macromedia – “MacroMind"?! I had never even heard the name MacroMind until I looked it up just now, to learn it existed until its 1992 merger with Aut…

I’m surprised they didn’t just state “Macromind, co-founded in part by Marc Canter”.

Re: Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

#25

Post by basch »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #19
basch wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article literally says that Flash will not be discontinued. >Adobe continues to offer a rich set of content creation tools through Creative Cloud, including Adobe Animate CC for authoring interactive content for multiple platforms, such HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash/Adobe AIR and others.

I'm not sure why they mentioned Flash in that press release. I suppose Adobe technically "continues to offer it" as of right now. Scroll down a little further. There's a subhead titled "Adobe Flash marked for retirement as well"

Well color me surprised. That's flippin silly.

Re: Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

#26

Post by Theodores »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #18
Theodores wrote: post #9

A decade ago people were able to put together very impressive things in Flash. I was never wanting to take that route however that content still deserves to be viewable by future generations. Sure the Flash viewer might open your computer to hackers but if I wanted to see what my music mad workmate was trying to impress me with a decade ago then it would be nice to be able to risk my computer viewing it. With browser…

Adobe has a standalone program called Flash Projector that can load swf files. That's what I'd generally recommend for viewing Flash content, though you do need to isolate and save any swf files beforehand.

They even have a linux 64 bit version! That is great news.

That downloads page takes me back a bit. I remember that time when I would boot into Windows and there would always be a pop up saying there was an update to Flash for me. It was one of the more reliable surprises in the universe, even if ignored by everyone you could at least rely on the Flash installer to be wanting your attention with that familiar download page there for you, just waiting to keep you safe on your adventures online.

Re: Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

#27

Post by bpye »

Wowfunhappy wrote: post #22
TheOperator wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really doesn't matter insofar that the internet is going to keep copies of shockwave installers for decades long after adobe would ever realistically keep offering downloads. I do think it would be cool for them to keep offering downloads of the installer. Adobe should be proud of shockwave and show that pride by keeping the installer out there.

> the internet is going to keep copies of shockwave installers for decades long after adobe would ever realistically keep offering downloads. But how can you be sure these are legitimate copies of Shockwave and/or Flash?

Even if archive.org wasn't willing to host the installers because of copyright, they could list known good hashes couldn't they?

Re: Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

#28

Post by Wowfunhappy »

bpye wrote: post #27
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the internet is going to keep copies of shockwave installers for decades long after adobe would ever realistically keep offering downloads. But how can you be sure these are legitimate copies of Shockwave and/or Flash?

Even if archive.org wasn't willing to host the installers because of copyright, they could list known good hashes couldn't they?

Sure, and that would be a legitimately great service.

But, many people do you think are going to go and check the hash beforehand? How many people even know how to check the hash? Admittedly, the type of user who will go through so much effort to run old Flash content probably skews more technical, but the point remains.

The alternative is that Adobe could just leave the downloads links up under a giant "Not Supported Don't Use" banner. I know which option I'd find more responsible.

Re: Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th

#29

Post by nosamu »

Note that this announcement is about Shockwave, not Flash. Here is an article about the difference between the two: https://medium.com/@nosamu/the-difference-between-flash-and-... While Shockwave Player will be discontinued on April 9, Flash Player will be discontinued at the end of 2020: https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/
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