It’s no secret that Steve Jobs had a serious disdain for Adobe Flash, attempting to relegate it to the technological junk yard when he was at the helm of Apple. If history is anything to go by, Jobs’ premonitions about the future of the digital world are usually quite accurate.
Mozilla, the creator of the web browser Firefox, along with social media giant Facebook are following in the footsteps of the prodigious Apple co-founder, and have set their sights on Adobe Flash too.
What is Adobe Flash?
Adobe Flash, commonly referred to as Flash, is a multimedia software used for creating vector-based graphics, animation, browser games, rich Internet applications, desktop applications, mobile applications and mobile games. Flash supports streaming of audio and video, and can capture mouse, keyboard, microphone and camera input. During the early years of the Web, Flash was the only decent option for animation and making a website exciting and creative. Your were faced with the choice of having either “ a boring HTML website” or use Flash, and as a result the Adobe multimedia system became extremely popular.
Why is everyone ganging up on Flash?
In the world of business IT especially, security is paramount when conducting any kind of operation online. Mozilla is now blocking Flash in its Firefox browser, having discovered bugs and system issues that are being leveraged by cunning hackers. Despite Adobe’s claims that they are currently addressing these issues, it appears this isn’t good enough for Mozilla.
Chief of security at Facebook, Alex Stamos, has pulled no punches when it comes to the future of Flash, recently tweeting: “It is time for Adobe to announce the end-of-life date for Flash”. This kind of sentiment stems from recent issues with the software that have jeopardised the player on both Mac and Windows operating systems.
This kind of negative publicity does not bode well for the Adobe team, as they scramble to apply patches to potential security issues and regain a foothold in the online landscape. Whilst this does not necessarily equate to a death sentence for Flash, it certainly acts as a wake-up call and begs the question of whether Adobe is up to the challenge.
What lessons can be learned from the demise of Flash?
Business in the digital age is faced with concerns from all angles online: cloud security, defending sensitive data from hackers and backup issues that could see valuable information literally disappear in the blink of an eye.
Where Adobe has struggled is in ensuring its product represents a risk-free option for the end user. It appears that being reactive in the fast moving digital world is no longer a feasible business model, and companies must remain vigilant and proactively search for flaws in their products, systems and IT solutions if they are to remain relevant in the future.
If you would like some assistance with finding alternatives to Flash or still have a website that uses Flash and need a redesign contact our friendly web design team on 1300 855 651.