Final countdown begins for Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash will cease to exist by the end of 2020.
November 1, 2019
At the end of 2020, Adobe Flash will no longer be with us.
Adobe Flash was software that allowed the user to support animations and games that were streamed on the internet. The games that supported Adobe Flash player were Cool Math Games, Club Penguin, and Happy Wheels.
Adobe Flash will be shut down by blocking Adobe Flash and disabling Adobe from working on the website.
Adobe’s official website said, “Specifically, we will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.”
Adobe acquired Macromedia Flash Player in 2005. Over the years since then, Adobe Flash started having issues. The issues included, security concerns and hackers. Because of this, many companies and industries don’t run Adobe Flash anymore.
The Adobe website stated, “Where we’ve seen a need to push content and interactivity forward, we’ve innovated to meet those needs. Where a format didn’t exist, we invented one – such as with Flash and Shockwave.”
At the very beginning of the internet, people used Adobe Flash to play games, watch animations and also for the library of content on YouTube in the early 2000s.
“Everyone who uses computers knows about it,” said Javier Sanchez ’22.
In 2007, everything started to fall apart because Apple decided to not allow Adobe Flash on their devices due to the fact of security flaws, and replaced it with HTML5. YouTube also dropped Flash for HTML5.
Many browsers have disabled Flash, as people must enable Flash themselves. Microsoft will completely end support for the Adobe Flash in 2020. Adobe will be missed by kids in the 2000s because they loved how they could play games on the internet.
John Wu, Director of Technology said, “At school when the lunch bell rang, my friends and I would try our best to run to the computer lab and played these Flash games together instead of eating lunch.”
Shutting down Adobe Flash will impact people who still use those sites that run on it because they will have trouble trying to use it.
Many industries have been incorporated around Adobe Flash, which includes gaming, videos, and education. They will continue to run Adobe through 2020 and then they must find other players. Adobe isn’t gone forever.
Wu said, “I don’t think Flash will go away completely. It’s not obsolete, it’s just a platform that we could look back on and appreciate it for what it was.”
Animation studios use Adobe Flash to make animations for Disenchantment, and many other cartoon shows. Fans can still check out some of the websites that still run on Adobe Flash, such as NewGrounds.com, Cool Math Games, and Y8.
Wu said, “Adobe Flash will be remembered by people reminiscing about it and remembering how much enjoyment Adobe Flash helped put in their lives.”