So today we have official confirmation that Adobe is going to kill off Flash by 2020. Good for them, since it’s been the source of who knows how many security issues over the years. So this was a long time coming.
Flash is arguably unnecessary nowadays anyway. The role that Flash used to have is now satisfied through a myriad of other technologies: HTML5, Javascript, etc. etc. Pretty much anything that you want to do can be done some other way other than Flash nowadays. Did you know there was a time when YouTube was Flash only? It’s the truth.
Adobe isn’t losing sleep over it since they’ve been pushing transition to HTML5 for a number of years. Here’s the thing that most people don’t realize: security folks are angry about Flash. It’s not usual that people have a visceral reaction to a piece of technology. But with Flash, it is the case.
So this is a good thing. Time will tell whether Adobe will continue to maintain paid legacy support for Flash for organizations with legacy applications that aren’t able to transition. We’ll see. My suspicion is that they will. On the whole, a positive development.