It’s been known for a while that the Web industry is moving toward an Internet without plugins like Flash, Silverlight and various ActiveX components, standardizing and centralizing everything under the umbrella of HTML5 and WebGL where necessary. And while this is a great idea for the future, it also has lots of problematic implications for the present, as it’s a huge transfer process which not all users are entirely on board with. What’s more, not all industry experts seem to agree entirely on the issue. According to some, it may be a bit too early to think about killing off Flash for good, as the technology apparently still has its merits.
One of the biggest issues with removing Flash is its immense popularity. It’s still a commonly used platform all over the Web, and even today some sites continue to incorporate tiny Flash elements into their designs. And then there are those that are entirely based on the technology – removing support for Flash would be a huge problem for those websites.
Compatibility is also a great benefit when it comes to Flash, as it’s universally supported across all major operating systems and browsers, and always works the exact same way on all of them. Developers never have to deal with the expectation of different performance on different machines or software configurations, which makes for much easier development.
It’s also a great platform for small games, all things considered, although it’s being surpassed by technologies like Unity lately. Still, game developers continue to use Flash heavily even today, and this is a trend that doesn’t seem to be dying down anytime soon.
Is all of this a valid reason to kill off the platform though? Opinions have been split on that, as on one hand, some experts claim that these reasons should not be ignored – but on the other, there seems to be an answer to everything listed above. Popularity is a matter of proper adaptation and will take some time, compatibility is already pretty much resolved when modern technologies like HTML5 are used, and there are numerous game engines that work in JavaScript and other “true Web” platforms and don’t rely on Flash for their rendering.
In any case, no matter when Flash Player ends up getting phased out for good, it won’t be anytime soon. It’s a process that will likely take years, especially for users who’re constantly reluctant to update their software, but major browser companies have already started the initiative by choosing to disable components like Flash and ActiveX plugins in the most recent versions of their products.