Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Firefox makes click-to-activate Flash the default

support.mozilla.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

391–398 of 398 posts

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

#391

Post by joeyespo »

koonsolo wrote: post #343
marksc wrote: post #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…

Hi Mark, Technology should be replaced by better technology. To give you some background: I've written games for all kinds of platforms: PocketPC, Windows Mobile, (Desktop) Windows, Linux, OS X, Flash (AS3), HipTop, J2ME devices and some smaller proprietary devices. Some of those platforms offer write once, run everywhere. On other platforms every device has it's own quirks and you have to test on every device and im…

Wow, these are my thoughts exactly, but haven't been able to put to word. Thanks for writing this.

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

#392

Post by bzbarsky »

velcro wrote: post #42

Bugs are always bad (and security bugs even more so) - but I've always felt that Flash gets a disproportional amount of hate/hype in the media. To some degree it should be normal that the more widespread a technology is - the more it gets targeted for security exploits. If you run the popular browsers/plugins against the National Vulnerability Database, you'd get the following results (as of January 2014): - Internet…

The bigger question is how many of those were 0-days: vulnerabilities that were public before a version of the software with the fix had shipped.

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

#393

Post by fao_ »

degenerate wrote: post #147
fao_ wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a lot of experience of end users and they are forever telling me that they get so many different "Update this", "Update that" windows that they can no longer distinguish real from fake. Some of them have been tricked by fake web site pop-ups as a result, others ignore legitimate update messages. I do not blame them. One solution to this is to use AdBlock Plus. When a site permits adverts that threaten a comput…

Not ABP, ublock origin. Faster and not-for-profit: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock#performance

Ah, and apparently (one other commenter mentioned it) ABP did a deal with advertisers.

Ugh (damn capitalism!), I think I shall move to ublock origin today then.

Thank you for letting me know about it :)

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

#394

Post by exodust »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #263
exodust wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When is the formal EOL for Firefox? It's my primary browser, but some people hate it, so just thought I'd ask when the EOL for Firefox is? Flash is never blocked for me in Firefox and never will be. Because a few months back I did this: 1. about:config 2. extensions.blocklist.enabled - 'false' Job done. No more Mozilla annoyances between me and the content I wish to access. And yes, it was an annoyance because the li…

> extensions.blocklist.enabled - 'false' Congratulations, you just left yourself open to malware masquerading as addons.

And yet, my system is squeaky clean, and has been for years.

And shock horror, I don't even have a virus protection program installed. I install one ever 12 months or so. Actually I install a few at one time to be thorough. Do a complete scan, and of course it comes up 100% clean, then I uninstall all of them and get on with work.

Continue being paranoid and using up CPU cycles to serve your paranoia while I enjoy a lighting fast workstation. The choice is yours. Choice is good.

When I was student, I didn't buy games. I downloaded them. Got malware and worse even with virus protection. I buy games, since about 2002 I just buy the software I want. No virus/malware issues here.

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

#395

Post by exodust »

nightpool wrote: post #223
exodust wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When is the formal EOL for Firefox? It's my primary browser, but some people hate it, so just thought I'd ask when the EOL for Firefox is? Flash is never blocked for me in Firefox and never will be. Because a few months back I did this: 1. about:config 2. extensions.blocklist.enabled - 'false' Job done. No more Mozilla annoyances between me and the content I wish to access. And yes, it was an annoyance because the li…

Holy shit. Flash has over 34 CVEs in one week—and only because a prominent organization that was sitting on a bunch of them got hacked—and you call mozilla taking steps to protect the security and integrity of their customers an "engineered annoyance"? Grow up.

I am older than you probably, I am over 40.

Holy shit, it's like you're throwing nappies at me and telling me I should wear them immediately. I don't want or need a nappy.

Holy shit, look at this: http://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2011-3660/

"There is total information disclosure, resulting in all system files being revealed."

OMG it's from 2011, and those poor people from 2011 with Firefox installed.

Listen. I am not worried about your CVE's. Got it? Don't push your paranoid, unsubstantiated crap into my reading.

If I'm vulnerable, where's the stories of "person with Firefox and Flash gets owned" stories? Link me one, just one.

If you want security, if you want privacy. Close you damn Facebook account (if you can). Good luck.

nightpool..... some advice: uninstall your virus protection program for one year. Let us know how you go in a year. (hint, you'll be fine).

Hack me.

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

#396

Post by exodust »

johnduhart wrote: post #286
exodust wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When is the formal EOL for Firefox? It's my primary browser, but some people hate it, so just thought I'd ask when the EOL for Firefox is? Flash is never blocked for me in Firefox and never will be. Because a few months back I did this: 1. about:config 2. extensions.blocklist.enabled - 'false' Job done. No more Mozilla annoyances between me and the content I wish to access. And yes, it was an annoyance because the li…

> I like Flash when it's done well. Raw performance and efficiency is one of the things I like about it. This is some comedy gold.

Performance is better than javascript. But then, who here has done a side by side comparison?

A: Built something in Flash

B: Built the exact same thing in JS and measured their performance side by side in the page, and on separate pages.

Even sliding an image - such a simple thing. Make it whoosh to the left. Guess what? Flash will whoosh it quicker and smoother on browsers with Flash installed.

I love JS, it's cool for web stuff and data fetching and sorting for a huge percentage of the internet. I had a great time with it doing multiple AJAX calls and sorting for a single page thing on a heavy traffic media site. Love the whole promises thing for sorting out those pesky asynchronous dinguses. Yep. HTML5 does indeed rock. Really love modern CSS too. Hate grids though but each to their own. I don't say "grids should die".

JS/HTML is not superman. If you want superman on your webpage, you need something more, such as a plugin.

Unity plugin. I might use that next. I really don't want to be fighting people about the value of plugins, even if that value and scope is reduced from what it is a few years ago, it's still there. I want to make games, and what is clear to me after trying an HTML game is that..... it's pretty much a joke. HTML5 games in 2015 are, a joke.

How dare anyone at Firefox or Facebook put forward an EOL for someone else's technology. EOL your own stuff, not someone elses. Bloody rude if you ask me.

"Flash should die because it has equal performance to native iOS apps". That's what I read between the lines in Jobs' letter. I like Steve Jobs, but he was a player. A chess player. We respect chess players, but they won't hesitate to knife you in-game.

If Flash dies, it's the hate that killed it more than any sensible reflection on the technologies we have available and how they can best be used.

If nothing else, hope I've added more comedy for you.

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

#397

Post by sidewinder128 »

mahouse wrote: post #97
sidewinder128 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Java plugin you mean right the one that runs on browsers?. Java itself is a huge topic including JDK, compilers, runtimes, server side etc.

Of course he means that, do you know the thread you are posting to?

he could meant JDK, the server runtime many things in Java. and I know the thread Im posting. you do not need to tell me. You do not need to mention it like that.

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

#398

Post by sethd »

nacs wrote: post #352
sethd wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.…

Agreed. I was looking into this streaming/live video issue as well and there really is no cross platform method of doing this without having a Flash fallback. For everything else however (like pre-recorded video, games via WebGL), Flash should be phased out.

Even for pre-recorded video you still need Flash if you want to implement adaptive bitrate streaming in order to provide multiple quality levels and have the client automatically switch between them rather than buffer.
Post reply on HN