Adobe sets Flash expiration date


Ars Technica:

Back in 2012, Adobe recognized that Flash's end was near, with a five- to 10-year timeframe for its eventual phasing out. Today, the company got specific: Flash will be supported through to the end of 2020, after which the Flash player will cease to be developed and distributed.

Flash became a wedge issue during the mobile platform wars. Apple famously never supported it while competitors bent over backwards to fill need. Flash never panned out on mobile as a battery and processor hog, which are two critical things on mobile devices. It also became a serious security risk.

Mobile has driven technology over the past decade, but prior to that, Flash was brilliant. Before, web content was dependent on browsers and lacked any real multimedia capabilities. Additionally, there needed to be a reliable way to monetize video. Flash was the great common denominator when the web was more of the wild west.

Now we have better established and supported standards across the board and Flash simply isn't needed. It hasn't been needed of years, but there's a lot of legacy code out there.