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FedEx Will Pay You $5 To Install Flash (theregister.co.uk)

Posted by BeauHD on from the money-as-an-incentive dept.

FedEx's Office Print department is offering customers $5 to enable Adobe Flash in their browsers. Why would they do such a thing you may ask? It's because they want customers to design posters, signs, manuals, banners and promotional agents using their "web-based config-o-tronic widgets," which requires Adobe Flash. The Register reports: But the web-based config-o-tronic widgets that let you whip and order those masterpieces requires Adobe Flash, the enemy of anyone interested in security and browser stability. And by anyone we mean Google, which with Chrome 56 will only load Flash if users say they want to use it, and Microsoft which will stop supporting Flash in its Edge browser when the Windows 10 Creators Update debuts. Mozilla's Firefox will still run Flash, but not for long. The impact of all that Flash hate is clearly that people are showing up at FedEx Office Print without the putrid plug-in. But seeing as they can't use the service without it, FedEx has to make the offer depicted above or visible online here. That page offers a link to download Flash, which is both a good and a bad idea. The good is that the link goes to the latest version of Flash, which includes years' worth of bug fixes. The bad is that Flash has needed bug fixes for years and a steady drip of newly-detected problems means there's no guarantee the software's woes have ended. Scoring yourself a $5 discount could therefore cost you plenty in future.

2 of 90 comments (clear)

  1. Reminds me of where I work by _xeno_ · · Score: 5, Funny

    Every other month it seems, we get an urgent notice from IT reminding us to either uninstall or update Flash.

    Unfortunately, I have to have Flash installed on my work computers because the corporate-required "training" courses that they keep on making us take require Flash - such as the one on "information security" about how important it is to keep our software up to date.

    So, basically, I have to have Flash installed so I can tick off a little checkbox that says I know not to install software like Flash.

    --
    You are in a maze of twisty little relative jumps, all alike.
  2. Discount != paying you. by whoever57 · · Score: 5, Informative

    FedEx is not paying anyone to install flash. Instead, they are offering a $5 discount. There is a huge difference.

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    The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!