Flash is Gone; Where's HTML5?

[tubemonkey]

Adobe Flash Player exits Android Google Play store

Adobe is pulling its Flash Player plug-in from Android's Google Play store.

It follows a decision to halt development of the software for mobile devices.

The plug-in allows multimedia content created using the Flash format to be viewed via a web browser.

Adobe will continue to develop the player for PCs. It will also support Air - a tool which lets developers turn web-based applications using Flash into standalone mobile apps.

The Flash Player had been popular on Google Play - with two-thirds of users giving it a top score.

But Adobe said it was removing the option to install the plug-in because it was likely to exhibit "unpredictable behaviour" when used with the latest version of Android, known as Jelly Bean.

And what of its replacement, HTML5? Oh yeah, it's still under development. Nothing like pulling the plug too early. Kinda like removing expandable storage from mobile devices because they can use the cloud. The problem is, the cloud requires a net connection and wifi isn't universally available.

Happily, my Galaxy Player has both Flash and a card slot.

ps: it's still available for officially supported devices

[StoryEnthusiast]

This confirms the trend towards HTML5 becoming the standard, despite the fact that it's not perfect.

[HansTWN]

And for the moment, Flash is working just fine on Android, all versions from 2.2 to 4.1 (though it is sad that you need workarounds on JB). I, personally, would not want to use a device that does not support Flash at this point in time. Too much content goes missing, or you have to pay for it instead of getting it for free (like Hulu vs Hulu Plus).

[teh603]

FYI, Adobe also killed the player for Linux (unless you install Chrome, which few Linux users will do) with a particularly buggy version- either you have blue casts to everything in youtube videos, or you get incessant crashes. The general response to people filing bug reports was something like, "We no longer support Linux, now go away and stop bugging us about fixing it."

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by teh603

FYI, Adobe also killed the player for Linux (unless you install Chrome, which few Linux users will do) with a particularly buggy version- either you have blue casts to everything in youtube videos, or you get incessant crashes. The general response to people filing bug reports was something like, "We no longer support Linux, now go away and stop bugging us about fixing it."

In the end, don't blame it on Adobe blame it on Steve's personal vendetta. Once Flash wasn't economically viable anymore Adobe had little incentive to fix it. At least that is what happened to mobile Flash. They dumped Linux earlier, if I remember correctly.

[curtw]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

And for the moment, Flash is working just fine on Android, all versions from 2.2 to 4.1 (though it is sad that you need workarounds on JB). I, personally, would not want to use a device that does not support Flash at this point in time. Too much content goes missing, or you have to pay for it instead of getting it for free (like Hulu vs Hulu Plus).

The workarounds aren't exactly onerous. All you need to do is get the Flash app from somewhere *other* than Google Play, and use it in a browser *other* than Chrome. For those here who have expressed negative thought toward rooting your devices, no fear--you don't even need that.

Full directions here.

[silasgreenback]

Originally Posted by teh603

FYI, Adobe also killed the player for Linux (unless you install Chrome, which few Linux users will do) with a particularly buggy version- either you have blue casts to everything in youtube videos, or you get incessant crashes. The general response to people filing bug reports was something like, "We no longer support Linux, now go away and stop bugging us about fixing it."

For the time being, Flash is working fine without Chrome's Pepper. The plugin I have is dated June 8th of this year and another one may not come down the pike, but for now all is well.

This super-buggy thing you're talking about...are you referring to Gnash?

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by curtw

The workarounds aren't exactly onerous. All you need to do is get the Flash app from somewhere *other* than Google Play, and use it in a browser *other* than Chrome. For those here who have expressed negative thought toward rooting your devices, no fear--you don't even need that.

Full directions here.

No problem for me (though I don't have any device running on JB yet), but the problem is that most users won't know how or won't bother. So this move is the final blow for Flash.

And apparently you need older version of Flash for JB, which means a lot of users are seeing the error message "you need to update your flash player".

[wyndslash]

i guess for now, my incentive on buying newer mobile devices is gone

[Prestidigitweeze]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

In the end, don't blame it on Adobe blame it on Steve's personal vendetta. Once Flash wasn't economically viable anymore Adobe had little incentive to fix it. At least that is what happened to mobile Flash. They dumped Linux earlier, if I remember correctly.

I have no problem blaming Jobs as long as I know he's actually responsible. I'm with you on the chronology, just not on the assumption that Android and Adobe are copying Apple due to financial isolationism. It's also possible they reached the same conclusion as Apple for other (possibly technical) reasons.

That said, I have friends whose long-term jobs have involved writing flash games and apps. They're not happy with HTML5 so far and they really don't like that giant foot from Monty Python coming down on flash prematurely.

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

In the end, don't blame it on Adobe blame it on Steve's personal vendetta. Once Flash wasn't economically viable anymore Adobe had little incentive to fix it. At least that is what happened to mobile Flash. They dumped Linux earlier, if I remember correctly.

Well, that's one point where Steve and I agreed. I'm glad to see flash gone.
The crappy linux support mainly.

And I hate website flashing around everywhere. I hope devs won't abuse HTML5 the same way.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Well, that's one point where Steve and I agreed. I'm glad to see flash gone.
The crappy linux support mainly.

And I hate website flashing around everywhere. I hope devs won't abuse HTML5 the same way.

The problem is that it is not really gone yet. We are still in limbo, I need Flash for many websites. They let flash die on devices while we still need it to display content. I am glad I have my workarounds, but for a lot of users this is a major pain. If there had been a seamless switch from Flash to HTML5 I couldn't care less what the underlying technology is. But this is pretty stupid.

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Well, that's one point where Steve and I agreed. I'm glad to see flash gone.
The crappy linux support mainly.

And I hate website flashing around everywhere. I hope devs won't abuse HTML5 the same way.

Hah! The Glen Barrington addendum to Newton's laws of physics. "If a technology CAN be abused for short term financial gain, it WILL be abused for short term financial gain."

Your best bet in that regard is to start pinning your hopes on HTML7 or 8. Those technologies are at least far enough out in time that you might be dead before you see how THOSE technologies are abused!

[DiapDealer]

Flash 10.3 works quite well for me on Linux. I use it to run the Hulu Desktop software and watch TV with it. Any version beyond that gets sketchy, I'll admit. I'm not sure why anyone would think installing Chrome is the only way to get Flash working in Linux, though.

[teh603]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Flash 10.3 works quite well for me on Linux. I use it to run the Hulu Desktop software and watch TV with it. Any version beyond that gets sketchy, I'll admit. I'm not sure why anyone would think installing Chrome is the only way to get Flash working in Linux, though.

Originally Posted by silasgreenback

For the time being, Flash is working fine without Chrome's Pepper. The plugin I have is dated June 8th of this year and another one may not come down the pike, but for now all is well.

This super-buggy thing you're talking about...are you referring to Gnash?

Ok, from doing a little remembering, the issue only appears on nVidia GPUs. I saw something technical on it; aparrently the issue is with Flash improperly handling the GPU or something like that. I'm not a programmer so it was all in Geek to me. The gist of the matter was that nVidia had said it was Adobe's problem, and Adobe said there was no problem.

Gnash doesn't seem to have that issue, but it does have other problems like not supporting a lot of features of advanced Flash videos.

As for the thing about Flash and Chrome, Adobe announced that the only way to get an updated Flash player on Linux was to use the version bundled with Chrome.