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Petition Asks Adobe To Open-Source Flash To Preserve Internet History (bleepingcomputer.com)
An anonymous reader quotes BleepingComputer:
A petition is asking Adobe to release Flash into the hands of the open-source community. Finnish developer Juha Lindstedt started the petition a day after Adobe announced plans to end Flash support by the end of 2020. "Flash is an important piece of Internet history and killing Flash means future generations can't access the past," Lindstedt explains in the petition's opening paragraph. "Games, experiments and websites would be forgotten." The developer wants Adobe to open-source Flash or parts of its technology so the open-source community could take on the job of supporting a minimal version of the Flash plugin or at least create a tool to accurately convert old SWF and FLA files to modern HTML5, canvas data, or WebAssembly code... Lindstedt is asking users to sign the petition by starring the project on GitHub. At the time of writing, the petition has garnered over 3,000 stars.
A reporter at ZDNet counters that "the only way to really secure Flash is to get rid of it... If Flash lives, people will continue to use it, and without security support, it will be even more insecure than ever." He points out there's already several programs that convert Flash into other formats -- and that Adobe already open sourced its Flex framework for building Flash applications back in 2008 (now supported by the Apache Software Foundation as Apache Flex). "In other words, we don't need the Flash source code to convert or create Flash files. Just let Flash go already...!
"Usually, I'm favor with open-sourcing everything and anything. Not this time. Flash has proven to be a net of endless security holes. It's time to let it go for once and for all.
A reporter at ZDNet counters that "the only way to really secure Flash is to get rid of it... If Flash lives, people will continue to use it, and without security support, it will be even more insecure than ever." He points out there's already several programs that convert Flash into other formats -- and that Adobe already open sourced its Flex framework for building Flash applications back in 2008 (now supported by the Apache Software Foundation as Apache Flex). "In other words, we don't need the Flash source code to convert or create Flash files. Just let Flash go already...!
"Usually, I'm favor with open-sourcing everything and anything. Not this time. Flash has proven to be a net of endless security holes. It's time to let it go for once and for all.
Systemd.flash
How does making something "open source" magically make it bug-free and highly secure?
Didn't you know open source has magical properties? Masses of people will suddenly give a shit about the state of the code and want to fix it. After all, when did an open source project ever stagnate and die from lack of interested developers? ... oh right...
If I had a DeLorean... I would probably only drive it from time to time.
Is there a petition I can sign for Adobe to delete the source code to Flash? I know it's almost dead but why wait? ;)
NO. I have a bar bet regarding how many times the comment "# For the love of God, fix this before next release!!!" appears in the source.
#DeleteChrome
Do open source it so we can look at the hackjob shitpile that is Adobe code and learn from their utter fuckups, and get a laugh at the same time!
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Flash needs to be treated like the smallpox virus. Once it's eradicated from the world, the source code needs to be preserved in an air-gapped laboratory that authorised members of the scientific community have access to in case of another outbreak.