A Flash in the Pan

The Flash Story

       Once again it is time to talk about Adobe Flash. Perhaps one of the greatest things that will never be remembered in history. Despite its obsoleteness by today's standards, when it first came out, Flash was revolutionary. It brought web-based videos, animation, and interactivity to the world wide web. It was also guaranteed to work on any computer of browser.

       Unfortunately all good things must come to an end and Flash has been in rapid decline since about 2007. Apple decided not to support Flash in its latest model of iPhone with Steve Jobs claiming that Flash was "overly proprietary" and with HTML5 right around the corner, it quickly became outmoded. Flash did not simply fade away though; games and videos that many tech giants displayed used Flash kept it alive.

       It still wasn't enough. In 2011 Adobe finally realized that Flash was dying, and nothing could be done about it. They decided to move on to HTML5 with Edge Animate. Several years later, in 2015, hackers began injecting surveillance software into the Flash Player. Facebook called on Adobe to set a death date for the Flash plugin. Instead, Adobe discontinued Edge Animate and renamed the professional app to Animate CC. It was a weak compromise that would use HTML5 but still support Flash content. At this point Facebook was the only one who still really used Flash but even that is diminishing with its release of an HTML5 update. Even Google Chrome, the most popular web browser, announced that it would no longer support Flash as a default.

       Flash is dying, slowly being archived by internet historians who are painstakingly storing as much Flash that is unable to update as they can. Soon it will no longer exist, the once celebrated program it used to be now sits, waiting for its untimely end.

Afterthoughts

       Well, that is certainly a depressing story, at least for Flash it is. All in all, the author of the article Gone in a Flash is basically saying that Flash is in the past, it's time to look to the future. Personally this has no effect on me because I have never been one to use Flash. I started messing with coding long after the fall of Flash. While it may seem depressing for those who loved Flash, the rest of the world has moved on and has embraced the next big thing. Well, at least until another better updated program comes out.

Until next time,

Jake Smith