Chrome 55 Now Blocks Flash, Uses HTML5 By Default (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader quotes Bleeping Computer: Chrome 55, released earlier this week, now blocks all Adobe Flash content by default, according to a plan set in motion by Google engineers earlier this year... While some of the initial implementation details of the "HTML5 By Default" plan changed since then, Flash has been phased out in favor of HTML5 as the primary technology for playing multimedia content in Chrome.
Google's plan is to turn off Flash and use HTML5 for all sites. Where HTML5 isn't supported, Chrome will prompt users and ask them if they want to run Flash to view multimedia content. The user's option would be remembered for subsequent visits, but there's also an option in the browser's settings section, under Settings > Content Settings > Flash > Manage Exceptions, where users can add the websites they want to allow Flash to run by default.
Exceptions will also be made automatically for your more frequently-visited sites -- which, for many users, will include YouTube. And Chrome will continue to ship with Flash -- as well as an option to re-enable Flash on all sites.
Google's plan is to turn off Flash and use HTML5 for all sites. Where HTML5 isn't supported, Chrome will prompt users and ask them if they want to run Flash to view multimedia content. The user's option would be remembered for subsequent visits, but there's also an option in the browser's settings section, under Settings > Content Settings > Flash > Manage Exceptions, where users can add the websites they want to allow Flash to run by default.
Exceptions will also be made automatically for your more frequently-visited sites -- which, for many users, will include YouTube. And Chrome will continue to ship with Flash -- as well as an option to re-enable Flash on all sites.
Weird, then I must not be reading this.
So does it still let you "always click to flash"?
It'd be a real pain in the ass if, by watching one video, I have to always allow Facebook (major example) to run flash content, rather than just the specific flash content I authorize.
Also: where's the "click to run HTML5 video", please?
As young help desk technician eight years ago, Flash was almost as worst as the intranet sites that required IE6 to work. Every month a new version of Flash comes out to break the intranet sites for users because the program auto updates on its own and the intranet team was always two weeks behind on updating Flash on the web servers. Every month I got tickets to remote into systems to rollback to the previous version of Flash to get the intranet sites working again.
As a computer security technician today, Silverlight is becoming the new Flash with problematic installs that refuse to update properly. Every month the Nessus scan spits out a list of systems that I remote into to run a Microsoft Fix-It program to uninstall the older version and reinstall the baseline version.
Many many users are reporting that Chrome doesnt show the on screen keyboard when focus is given to inputs, you have to manually open the keyboard. Been this way for a dozen or so major versions.
Society is once again better off thanks to Trump! This would never have happened under Clinton's watch.
Never mind that neither of them are president.
Maybe you should cleanup all the malware.
raise your ISO.
"But remember, most lynch mobs aren't this nice." (H.Simpson)
-- Joe
Sounds like winblows. Runs fine elsewhere.
Or as the old adage goes, you get what you pay for?
Not yet. Trump will very likely be inaugurated (he's got the best protection and the best life insurance in the world), and for Clinton, I'm sure she is ready to run for president a third time in 4 years.
Good citizen, your Google tracking software is working!
I use the Disable HTML5 Autoplay extension. It allows for whitelisting.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
a) there are still hundreds of sites out there that use Flash and have no way to change this easily (homestarrunner.com, for example)
Yeah, this sucks. Most weather radar sites (including a lot of NOAA products) require Flash. It's getting a little better, but very slowly.
b) there are things that you can't even DO with HTML5, but are readily available in flash. Notably, filesystem access.
Thank goodness for that. A widget in a web browser has no business autonomously accessing my filesystem. If I want to intentionally upload or download a file, every browser can do that without a plugin.
"BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
It's too bad Adobe can't write secure software.
Sure they can. It's just not worth the expense. Besides, the OS is just as much to blame. If it ran in read only memory, this wouldn't be such a big issue.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
For years I've not had Flash in my default browser, and maybe once or twice per year I come across I site that has Flash content I want to see. In those cases I launch my other browser.
I have no doubt that many of the sites you visit have *something* in flash, but what? Ads? A stupid animated splash page that just wastes your time?
Until early 2010, Flash was needed for Youtube, which was the last site I used it, or saw many people using it. Once Youtube had html5 as an option, six years ago, I've only really seen Flash used for crap I'd prefer to avoid anyway, such as ads. I can think of one exception - a Cisco tool I'm forced to learn for certification.
Hillary! lost the Democrat nomination in 2008 despite having the entire process rigged for her.
Not quite. She favored the states that voted in primaries while Obama favored the states that voted in caucuses. By the time someone crunched the numbers in the Hillary campaign, Obama had enough delegates to lock up the nomination. It was Hillary who nominated Obama by acclamation from the convention floor. Something that no Republican would have done for Trump.
Hillary! almost lost the Democrat nomination - to someone who wasn't a member of the Democratic Party! - despite having the entire process rigged in her favor.
Not quite. Super delegates has been a standard feature for Democratic conventions since 1969. After Super Tuesday, Bernie Sanders had to win every primary election with 60% of the vote in order to win the nomination and he failed to get the votes. If super delegates were removed from the equations, Bernie still wouldn't have enough delegates to lock up the nomination.
THEN Hillary! lost the general election to a blowhard clownish demagogue despite having the entire media world covering up her negatives and all but openly pulling for her.
Not quite. The media gave Trump $2B in free advertising while focusing on and sometimes making up stuff about Hillary's email server.
I'm sure if Hillary! wants to keep running, the Republicans will be happy.
The Clintons have been good business for Republican fundraisers over the last 30 years. They will sorely be missed for years to come.
Also: where's the "click to run HTML5 video", please?
Even more importantly, where's the click to start downloading HTML5 video? Most HTML5 video can be stopped from playing automatically but it will still start downloading, and drain the quota on a metered connection in no time.
I have Chrome 55 installed, but flash is still working in all the tests I do without prompting me. Even going to isflashinstalled.com works.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
Yes, flash is a piece of turd. But it is a WORKING piece of turd, and HTML5 won't change that.
Unfortunately, it's also a DANGEROUS turd. I understand that many sites will continue to require Flash in the near future. These will continue to work, just with an extra click. We're not talking about the complete elimination of Flash here. But it should be treated as the dangerous malware vector that it is, and only activate when someone really wants to activate it. I agree that functionality-wise, Flash has a lot going for it. But it's just not worth the price we paid (and continue to pay) security-wise.
Adobe had Flash, Microsoft had ActiveX, and Java had its plugin. All three were major security disasters, and we're still feeling the negative effects of all of them even today. I welcome anything that sweeps those technologies toward the dustbin of internet history.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
Believe it or not, they're now grooming Chelsea to be the next political Clinton operative.
Yes, the fact that we have a free press* helped Trump tremendously. If it had been Hillary vs. Clinton in a country like Zimbabwe or China, Hillary might be the President-elect right now.
(*major elements of said free press were heavily biased toward Hillary, but that's one of the costs of freedom)
I would have thought that Google would detect browsers that do HTML5 video and make YouTube serve HTML5 video to such browsers by default and only enable Flash if the user has specifically gone into the YouTube settings and disabled HTML5 for some reason.
Or are there still things on YouTube that aren't served as HTML5 even to the latest version of Chrome?
There are doubtless printing presses running even today printing lifesize portraits of Chelsea Clinton. They'll be attached to sticks so that they are easy for Republicans to wave when necessary.
Pogo.com and many other casual gaming sites are strong users of Flash. Probably entities like those are the reason Google doesn't wholesale abandon Flash on their browsers.
I doubt if many Slashdot regulars do much gaming at pogo.com but I bet at least a handful of us know family members who are regulars there.
Silly goose, I don't care.
I imagine companies like Armor games aren't going to be too happy about this, as their chief revenue source is being blocked by default.
Not working for me either. However something has changed. Under settings it still is listed to "detect and run important Flash" which is also the "recommended" settings. These settings were not part of Chrome 54 (just checked on my laptop, then updated and then they appeared).
It doesn't seem to be blocking flash for me. Maybe all Flash is important right now...
I checked an assumption mid posting and forgot to change my title.
if you're retarded enough to think everyone on the internet is going to proofread and use proper grammar and composition on a freaking forum then you're an idiot and need a reality check.
OP wrote like a Millennial talking out of his ass. For someone claiming to be a university graduate, I found that contradiction hard to believe.
[...] thinking you're superior by pointing out spelling/grammar/composition mistakes you fucking grammar nazi.
I've been on Slashdot for 17 years, I don't think I've ever been a grammar nazi. Do I get a virtual gold star for that?
Believe it or not, they're now grooming Chelsea to be the next political Clinton operative.
If she's follows her mother's footsteps by running for Senate, serving time as a Senator (her mother served for eight years), and then running for president, I don't have problem with that. I just don't see her running for president in 2020 or 2024 with the Clinton baggage train following her. Undoubtedly, one of the Bush kids will have to run against her.
It's unreliable. With a lot of vids if you try to skip past the HEEEY KIDS, IT'S ME STEEVEEEOO AND IN THIS VIDEO IM GONNA SHOW YOU THE ABSULUTE BESTEST WAY TO DO THAT THING YOU WANT TO DO THAT I'M GONNA SHOW YOU HOW TO DO SOON AS I CONVINCE YOU HOW KEWL I AM. I mean, most vids have 1-2 minutes you can fast forward past before they finally get to it. With HTML 5 it often goes into an infinite loading screen until you restart the vid.
I also have trouble with pausing a vid, doing something, then restarting it. Maybe 1/4 of the time it goes into the infinite loading bug.
Finally, don't even think of closing your laptop halfway through a vid. You'll have to restart the vid to continue watching after opening the laptop.
Or most likely a mind lacking in irrational fear.
That's ridiculous. Not everyone buys new hardware every year.
> On top of that you get auto video downloading and that wonderful audio
> API you can't turn off and is mainly used to fingerprint your browser.
A Pale Moon user here. My about:config includes...
media.audio_data.enabled; false
media.autoplay.allowscripted; false
media.autoplay.enabled; false
No problem.
I'm not repeating myself
I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
Flash Player peasant using YouTube Flash Player extension to play stutter-free video in his netbook (me) is worried....
So does it still let you "always click to flash"?
It'd be a real pain in the ass if, by watching one video, I have to always allow Facebook (major example) to run flash content, rather than just the specific flash content I authorize.
Also: where's the "click to run HTML5 video", please?
I watch CNN, BBC, ABC and YOUTUBE on my cellphone and laptop. BBC is still using flash, and some of CNN's videos are also in flash. And of course tubeyou still has mulitude of videos in backwards flash. Has anyone written a converter?
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
I find it hard enough to play 720p h264 in a web browser. Decent at best but not always smooth. Youtube 1080p, forget it.
Sure, go use a Core 2 Duo E8500, under Windows, with Google Chrome, and nothing else running in the browser.
That may be fine but I thought we cared about non-Windows too.
Steve Jobs was heavily criticized back in 2010 for his stance on Flash. He was right. Why did everybody have such an issue with him then?