It’s happened before with anyone who has a desktop computer. You get told to watch an adorable video of puppies taking their first swim on YouTube and as soon as you click on the link, you’re blocked from the video because your Adobe Flash needs to be updated. Then, you realize you’ve forgotten the username and password information you need in order to update your computer. You become angry and give up, step away from the computer and settle for watching that next episode in your Grey’s Anatomy marathon.
You’re not alone in this frustrating battle with Adobe Flash. The technology world – from Apple to Mozilla to Facebook – all want to kill off Flash as quick as possible. For years, the argument has been made whether to get rid of what Steve Jobs once said to be “a battery hog, a security risk and ultimately a bad choice for Apple’s mobile platforms,” according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Adobe Flash simply used to be a program designed to play videos, clips, animated cartoons and GIFS. Overtime, it became an open hatch for hackers to release bugs across the Internet and infect computers. Now, companies like Google and Mozilla Corp. are temporarily cutting out Flash from their browsers because of the viruses. While Adobe still continues to offer Flash to download along with frequent security checks and updates, it still creates suspicion and hesitation among users before downloading.
Business Insider magazine also examined other quirks about Flash. What was uncovered is that hackers launch fake security alerts through spam campaigns in order to spread malware viruses. One hacker group called “Wild Neutron” created an evil being inside Flash that allows confidential data from businesses to be stolen and spread from both PC and MacBook owners.
Adobe Flash has been stubborn for years about making Adobe Flash suitable enough to adapt into mobile devices. When the Apple iPhone was first released in 2007, Adobe Senior Designer and Head of Flash Development for mobile phones, Carlos Icaza, started to fall behind in production.
“For me, it was, ‘What the hell is going on? We have this amazing device that is going to change the world and everybody knows it,’” Icaza told the Wall Street Journal. “Nobody at the organization was trying to get Flash to work on the device.”
Terms were not met between Apple and Adobe and production was terminated. That’s when Jobs made it known to the technology world that Flash was becoming a threat to today’s computers.
It seems that, today, most people are ready to riot and kill off Flash for good. So, what is still keeping it alive? Well, not every browser has rid itself of its use. Flash runs through a good percent of all Internet homepages and keeps videos and other animated projects up and running.
Flash’s fight for life continues as viruses continue to appear and updates become less important. But what will happen with sites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook when it can’t play videos immediately? We’ll continue to look out for the technology world’s next move and see if we have to say goodbye to Adobe Flash.