Though Adobe Flash has been dying a slow death over the past few years, it’s far from dead yet. However, it seems like some people are getting pretty impatient with it and Facebook’s new chief security officer Alex Stamos is one of those people. He publicly tweeted yesterday calling out Adobe to just set a date already to kill Flash and make an announcement to put an end to its misery.
https://twitter.com/alexstamos/status/620306791520309248
Not only is Flash just a dying and increasingly unnecessary technology, it comes with a host of security issues and vulnerabilities, which is perhaps why Stamos is calling on Adobe to put it to rest. Adobe released yet another patch just a few weeks ago for a security hole that caught the attention of hackers and attackers.
Apple has led the way being aggressive with its stance on Flash. In 2010 Steve Jobs declared once and for all that Adobe Flash would never make it into iOS products because Apple instead wanted to focus its efforts on adopting the HTML5 open web standard instead. As a result, no one with an iPhone or iPad can run Flash. Additionally, Apple also no longer pre-installs Flash on any Macs, though it’s still available there for download.
Though it continually declines, many websites, particularly older ones, still rely on Flash for either specific blocks of content like video or entire web pages. Plus, all of the major web browsers like Chrome and Safari still fully support the plug-in. Even if it’s only necessary for two websites out of the hundreds people visit, most consumers see no reason to not install it and that ultimately slows progress moving away from proprietary browser plug-ins.
It’s important that desktop web browsers now begin to follow where mobile began by eliminating support for Adobe Flash and giving Adobe all the more reason to kill it off in favor of HTML5.
George Tinari has covered Apple and technology for over six years. On the rare occasion that he’s not sitting in front of his laptop, you can find him eating, awkwardly socializing, listening to music or singing along loudly to said music. You can also follow George on Twitter if you need more complaints and sarcasm in your timeline.
6 responses to “Facebook security chief begs Adobe to kill Flash”
Adobe is not killing the cash cow anytime soon. They make too much money off it.
Why was this comment flagged inappropriate?
Very nice to see Steve Jobs give some laudation for calling Adobe on Flash early on, and keeping it off their mobile devices. One of Apple’s wisest and most prescient decisions.
Adobe is a terrible company that only is interested in profits. Their products are all failing with the subscription plans they force on their customers. I’ve moved on from using their products and have found great smaller companies that offer good products.
Could someone just drive the wooden stake through its heart so we can all move on.
Subscriptions that Abobe are realizing are not going anywhere, Microsoft is trying and going to fail with their 365. Why would you want to entrust you Word Documents, Spreadsheets or any other confidential works to a server that you have no control over and that these companies can data mine at your expense.