Firefox To Block Non-Essential Flash Content In August 2016, Require Click-To-Activate In 2017 (mozilla.org)

Mozilla has announced that it plans to discontinue support for Flash in Firefox. Starting next month, Firefox will block Flash content "that is not essential to the user experience." Also, starting sometime in 2017, the browser will require click-to-activate approval from users before a website activates the Flash plugin for any content. In a blogpost, the company writes:Mozilla and the Web as a whole have been taking steps to reduce the need for Flash content in everyday browsing. Over the past few years, Firefox has implemented Web APIs to replace functionality that was formerly provided only by plugins. This includes audio/video playback and streaming capabilities, clipboard integration, fast 2D and 3D graphics, WebSocket networking, and microphone/camera access. As websites have switched from Flash to other web technologies, the plugin crash rate in Firefox has dropped significantly. [...] We continue to work closely with Adobe to deliver the best possible Flash experience for our users.

Comments

Re:And this is why my primary browser isn't Firefo

[gQuigs]

Chrome has done the first part of this for over a year...

Too damned late.

[Sable Drakon]

Mozilla should have made 'Click to Activate' the default behavior years ago. I've been running with that option toggled on for a few years, and it's never been an issue. If it's running Flash, I don't fucking want it turning on all by itself.

Click2Run should be standard...

[OfficeLackey]

Click to run should be the standard for all browsers and multimedia plugins. It's just safer that way. (Though advertisers will hate it...)

Re:And this is why my primary browser isn't Firefo

[HBI]

Pale Moon with Noscript. When they decide to start thinking for me, i'll look for another browser...

Re:Why?

[LichtSpektren]

Believe it or not, there's a lot of people who just run Firefox or Chrome fresh from the install without any tinkering or extensions. There's a reason why ads are still the biggest vector for malware.

Imagine a car that doesn't drive to Walmart...

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine a car that doesn't drive to Walmart... because it disagrees with Walmart policies. Browser is a vehicle, it has no value on its own. And if that vehicle will start telling me where I should and shouldn't go, I will just ditch it.
"Click to activate" is fine. Making user aware that flash may not be safe is fine. But "discontinue support for Flash in Firefox" is not OK, regardless of what I think about Flash as a technology. While it remains on many sites, it must be supported for browser to be of any use.

Control Javascript

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with "Click2Run should be standard", but that's not enough.

Mozilla writes:

But plugins often introduce stability, performance, and security issues for browsers. This is not a trade-off users should have to accept.

Well Javascript is the single biggest factor which "often introduces stability, performance, and security issues for browsers" . And to use Mozilla's words, this is not a trade-off which users should have to accept either. Why Mozilla does nothing to control and limit the impact of the primary enemy and instead leaves it to add-ons is incomprehensible.

At the very least, the Javascript engine should be frozen on out-of-focus tabs unless specifically enabled to run continuously on that tab. Without that, Firefox with tabs will continue to run like molasses because web designers are universally myopic and unwilling to limit their abuse of users' CPU.

Re:And this is why my primary browser isn't Firefo

[bheerssen]

Flash isn't any sort of standard except in the limited sense that it is used on a lot of web sites. It's a proprietary, closed source plugin and application; the precise opposite of a standard. This so-called "standard" exists solely at the whim of one company, Adobe, and they can do whatever they wish with it without regard to its users or anyone else. For instance, they dropped Linux support a few years ago without any input from the community.

In my opinion, Flash is an abomination that can't die soon enough. The same goes for Microsoft's Silverlight.

Re:And this is why my primary browser isn't Firefo

[hairyfeet]

I am because those "flash Exploits" are damned near all executing JavaScript which is the REAL threat here, you get rid of that stinking pile of offal that is JavaScript? I seriously doubt flash or any other plugin would be a problem.

Oh and lets not kid ourselves about Flash being dropped, mmkay? It didn't have shit to do with security it had to do with Apple not wanting games running outside the iStore and because all the content creators kiss the iAss for fear of not getting a shot at the iMoney they went along with it.

And what did we get to replace it, A proprietary as fuck DRM filled mess that is HTML V5 which is practically a love letter to Apple and MSFT...yeah because THAT is progress. say what you want about Adobe but 1.- they let anyone bundle flash into any OS, be it FOSS or proprietary, 2.- They even allowed FOSS alternatives like gnash to be developed...you think MPEG-LA is gonna tolerate that shit with H.265?

Lets face it the whole thing is a giant clusterfuck right now, with the corps racing to see who can make HTML V5 the most nasty and content creators cheering all the way because God forbid they offend the great and mighty Apple. Mark my words in 5 years you'll be BEGGING for something like Flash because all we will have is paywalled DRM content with unskippable malware ridden ads and none of it will play unless you are on the latest corporate approved OS.