File this away under the least surprising announcement ever.
Actually, it’s not so much an announcement as a reminder that on January 26, 2021, when Mozilla releases Firefox 85, the option to re-enable Adobe’s Flash Player will be gone, effectively eliminating Flash on the browser. Firefox is the latest in a string of browsers to have made the same move.
In fact, as of early 2021, you’ll be hard-pressed to find any browser that will still support Flash. It’s been a long time coming, and although it’s bound to cause some consternation, it’s a good move.
When the internet was in its infancy, Flash was a seminal application and incredibly important to the development of the early web. Just about every decent website in existence made heavy use of Flash to enhance the capabilities of their sites.
Unfortunately, as the web matured, it became increasingly apparent that Flash had more than its share of problems. For a time, new critical security flaws were being discovered in the code faster than Adobe could patch them, and it put broad swaths of the internet at risk.
Time and technology advanced and Flash was, in addition to being increasingly less secure, an increasingly less robust web development option as competing products could do more, and do it more securely, to boot.
All of that slowly led us to a point where the major browsers began developing a roadmap to gradually phase out Flash support, and now, that day is arriving.
Some browsers have already ended support, and Mozilla will follow suit early next year. If you’re still relying on Flash to power your company’s website, it’s well past time to find some other solution, and there are plenty of great alternatives out there. Technology is simply leaving your business behind. Don’t let that happen.
