Adobe Flash Is Finally Going Away

Company will have it phased out in 2020
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 26, 2017 6:21 AM CDT
Adobe Flash Is Finally Going Away
In this photo provided by Adobe Systems, Shantanu Narayen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Adobe Systems, speaks at Adobe MAX 2009.   (AP Photo/Adobe Systems, Susan Goldman)

When Microsoft suggested it was phasing out its venerable Paint program, nostalgic diehards were bummed out. Now Adobe has announced that it's killing another old staple, Adobe Flash, and the general reaction is closer to good riddance. "I am glad Adobe is ending Flash's life," one IT expert tells CNET. "It has honestly made the web a worse place for more than a decade." Flash, designed to make it easier for people to watch videos, play games, and the like, will be gone by the end of 2020, the company said in a blog post on Tuesday.

Flash has been long maligned for two big reasons—it's a security risk and it causes computers to crash—but Wired reports that the real reason Flash is going away is that it's just about obsolete now. "Developers have already moved on from Flash over the last few years, embracing open standards that achieve the same ends—or close enough to it— without" the downsides, writes Brian Barrett. Steve Jobs famously signaled the end when he banished Flash from iPhones in 2010, and now the big browsers are following suit. CNET details the phase-out plans for Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox here. (Microsoft Paint isn't dying, but it's moving to the Windows Store as an app.)

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