Adobe have confirmed they’re killing off Flash. While they won’t reach into your machine and nuke it, they will stop updates which means you should be moving away from it now (if you haven’t already). Adobe’s Flash Player has been notoriously bad for security vulnerabilities and requires constant updates to patch those security holes. When the updates stop at the end of 2020, Flash will then become a massive security issue and its likely a manual uninstall will be required.
Browsers are already starting to block Flash content by default to limit the security vector to end users, but with so much legacy content, both video, games and learning material built in Flash and unlikely to be rewritten in HTML5, its a hard drug to say goodbye to. That’s why its important we don’t leave this transition until 2019, we need to start decreasing your reliance on Flash now so come 2020, the death of Flash won’t be a problem.
If you’re a web developer and selecting content, ensure you make the right decision to choose content that doesn’t require Flash. Anything made in the last couple of years should be fine, or if you’re buying from a vendor who doesn’t currently offer HTML5 compatibility, then ask for it, or go elsewhere. A lot of publishing tools are as simple as checking a box to republish in a new format (HTML5, WebGL and WebAssembly).
As someone who started multimedia development on Macromedia Flash, learning ActionScript before it was Acquired by Adobe, seeing the end of Flash is sad, but necessary. The web has moved on, and if you’re looking at creating engaging 2D animations, Flash Builder is still part of the Creative Suite that allows publishing to new formats even mobile devices.
More information at Blogs.adobe.com
