Adobe Flash: Insecure, outdated, and here to stay

Google should stop supporting flash videos on Youtube and flash will be history. It's not as bad as it was years ago when every site had flash content which made your CPU go nuts.

 

The fact is Google has increased its use of flash on YouTube to the point that opting into the HTML5 trial is nearly useless. You'll be lucky if one in 30 videos is displayed using the HTML5 player. Previously it was around 50% of videos.

 

It's all bloatware of late as many are not able via IE and Firefox to update via the normal method.

 

Did anyone keep track of the size of the previous Flash versions ?

 

See: Archived Flash Player versions
http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/archived-flash-player-versions.html

 

In a very long help file:
http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player/kb/installation-problems-flash-player-windows.html
is section "Progress bar hangs during download / Unable to connect to server / Unable to download metafile"
In it are two links to installer - for activeX and plugin. No bloat, no chrome, no mcafee security, no toolbars.
I used it on XP about a week ago. Not sure how they knew it was XP, suspect they used user-agent or something like it. Flash now works in IE as well as Opera and SeaMonkey for youtube, so I'm pretty sure is ok to use.
The sizes are about 16-17 meg.

 

Manual installer for 11.1.102.55 is under 4 MB. 11.4.402.265 is around 10 MB.

I get manual installers from ~Link removed. See https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showpost.php?p=2116834&postcount=1~

 

Well, that's one thing. Another is VEVO videos require flash player. Just plain annoying.

 

That works without pointing directly at an executable file.

 

It's sad, almost everything is becoming bloatware.

I'm tempted to stop updating Flash. On the other hand, Kaspersky's revelation ('MASK') may be a reason to make an exception.

Newer is not better.

 

I have removed Flash. I don't use it for anything serious/necessary -> goodbye.

 

Deep Linking: Everyone Does It, but Is It Legal? (see post #8 )

 

If anyone is wondering what a deep link is, here's an example (it mentions Adobe too) of a deep link into wilderssecurity.com: How some Silicon Valley CEOs conspired to drive down 100,000 engineers’ wages.

 

I didn't know you even still had the option to use the HTML5 player. I thought that had long ago been abandoned as an attempt to get HTML5 "mainstream". Youtube hardly matters anymore anyway. Unless you enjoy watching people livestream their gaming sessions or long for the return of true music videos, there is little point to the site. On the subject of Flash itself, Adobe needs to get their ~ Snipped as per TOS ~ straight and get the updater working properly. It's not that shocking that millions of users are running with outdated Flash players when the only damned reliable way of getting updates without hassle is by using Chrome.

Now that I look back on it years later, Steve Jobs was right to ban Flash from his mobile devices. Adobe is a trash company. Now if we can just get webmasters all over the world to update their sites, we could be rid of it. That is the hardest part though.