Slashdot Mirror
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.
Chrome has done the first part of this for over a year...
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.
The Amarri pray for god, the Caldari pray for profit. the Gallente pray for peace, but the Minmatar pray their ships hol
Click to run should be the standard for all browsers and multimedia plugins. It's just safer that way. (Though advertisers will hate it...)
Pale Moon with Noscript. When they decide to start thinking for me, i'll look for another browser...
HBI's Law: Frequency of calling others Nazis is directly correlated with the likelihood of the accuser being Communist.
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.
Pale Moon with Noscript. When they decide to start thinking for me, i'll look for another browser...
Explain how the browser is "thinking for you" by discontinuing support for something. Firefox is free software. Fork it and support Flash yourself if you care so much. Mozilla doesn't want to waste the resources on a plugin that causes problems for millions of people.
IE just won't play flash unless you have the latest, as far as I can tell.
Edge will, well, no matter what it does you're still doing it on Edge.
Lynx has successfully blocked Flash since 1992 - everyone else is that far behind.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Good. Maybe next people will stop requiring javascript too. Too many sites require javascript to be enabled just to click on a damn link.
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.
(Score: -1, Stupid)
Flash isn't any sort of standard except in the limited sense that it is used on a lot of web sites.
And, until recently, more widely available and consistent across platforms than just about any official web standards other than HTML 4, CSS 2.1 and HTTP. In other words, Flash was a standard in the only way that really matters: it worked the same almost everywhere. Which, by the way, is far more than can be said for many of the new shiny toys that are supposed to replace it.
It's a proprietary, closed source plugin and application; the precise opposite of a standard.
Well, for one thing, that isn't anything like the precise opposite of a standard.
As for proprietary, closed source, and running as a separate process, have you looked at how HTML5 video works on iOS lately? Or the uses of EME, which is now a W3C standard? Or the number of different encodings you need to create to do something as simple as playing a video across most browsers in 2016, compared to the exactly one you needed with any number of Flash video players before?
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.
How is that fundamentally different to all the major browsers pushing substandard HTML5 features instead because Google decides Chrome will do so and everyone else apparently feels the need to emulate them? Meet the new boss, same as the old boss (except that now you can't even see what the old boss was like any more because all the records are inaccessible).
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
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.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.