Discussion

• @craigmod Craig Mod on x

  It's true. For as bad as it was, flash was accessible and brilliant in so many ways. I remember emailing Joshua Davis 20 years ago about my “flash experiments” and getting a response. Fun times! https://twitter.com/...

• @david_firth David Firth on x

  https://www.bbc.com/... I'd just like to add that Salad Fingers hasn't been released in the Flash format since episode 8 in 2007. The software to make it isn't discontinued, just the web player.

• @rob_sheridan Rob Sheridan on x

  In my first years as a designer, Flash was a revelation. It let me approach the early @nineinchnails websites as artfuck design experiences, back when the whole web was an art project. We mock Flash now, but it fostered a beautiful lost era of experiential web design. RIP. https:…

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  A new year dawns on the internet! Now to take a big sip of coffee and visit all my favorite Flash-based websites

• @steved3 Steve Ragan on x

  Flash is gone... now Zombocom doesn't work. :-( That website was the only one that made me feel welcome. The infinite was possible at Zombocom. The unobtainable was unknown at Zombocom.

• @caerickson Christian rickson on x

  Inevitable, but sad. Making weird animations and rock show promos with Flash in the 90s is what got me my first agency job despite having no degree or formal experience. That job changed my life. Thanks Flash, RIP. https://www.bbc.com/...

• @cfenollosa Carlos Fenollosa on x

  Flash is finally gone. With it, part of the history of the Internet. Thankfully the Internet Archive is preserving many games and animations, even though we won't be able to view them without an emulator. https://www.theverge.com/...

• @mahyartousi Mahyar Tousi on x

  Good. While we're getting rid of outdated technologies, can we go and scrap HS2 as well?! https://www.bbc.co.uk/...

• @eoinmccarthy Eoin McCarthy on x

  NHS e-learning is going to fall on its arse isn't it? Adobe Flash Player is finally laid to rest https://www.bbc.co.uk/...

• @tolmasky Francisco Tolmasky on x

  We live in a world today where something like Homestar Runner would be way more difficult to create. Companies are OK with this because they can't profit of an independent web comic, and devs are OK with this because they want to fiddle with toolchains, not make animated shorts.

• @whatdotcd @whatdotcd on x

  RIP flash wouldn't be here without you. https://twitter.com/...

• @amberatherton Amber Atherton on x

  Many fond childhood memories spending hours on the computer making animations on flash for my terrible e-card website. Was a surreal experience showing them years later on stage #adobesummit @bradrencher #TBT2020 #AdobeFlash https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @gcluley Graham Cluley on x

  Thank god that's finally over. Adobe Flash I mean. https://www.bbc.co.uk/...

• @mattmay Matt May on x

  Today is the Adobe Flash end of life date. I come to bury Flash, not to praise it. As an animation platform, Flash launched the web into new directions. But once it became a UX platform, without the structure of web or OS apps, it left millions behind. (thread)

• @dietrich @dietrich on x

  Flash 3 is what hooked me, over 20 years ago. Summer 98 probably. It was SO exciting to get it... well, a cracked demo version - I couldn't afford software. And SO much fun to use. Me with CSS animations, last week: https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @andrestaltz Andr Staltz on x

  While it had its downsides, I share the sentiment that Flash was great for *both* non-coder creators and coders. ActionScript 3 was years ahead of JavaScript. In 2010 it was like TypeScript today. https://twitter.com/...

• @hannafriden Hanna Fridn on x

  I was very much pro the end of Flash, mainly because of the security risks. But this is all true. It was a huge loss for the creative community and I really miss all of the awesome stuff people made and the communities around Flash. https://twitter.com/...

• @tlakomy @tlakomy on x

  When I was like 14 I was able to create a (really) simple game with Flash and post it on NewGrounds (where I was promptly downvoted into abyss, but that's another story) *Nothing* available in 2020 comes close to that experience https://twitter.com/...

• @tolmasky Francisco Tolmasky on x

  Apple's vision of democratized programming is signing contracts with school districts to buy 1000 underpowered iPad minis and then having everyone use Swift Playgrounds. If by some miracle students end up becoming devs then the 30% AppStore commission is just icing on the cake.

• @tolmasky Francisco Tolmasky on x

  “Thoughts on Flash” was never about the open web and was instead, if anything, about Apple controlling the iPhone ecosystem (and eventually the AppStore). I can't believe there is still such a naive interpretation of this. https://twitter.com/...

• @timsweeneyepic Tim Sweeney on x

  @larsiusprime The doc everyone links to - including Wikipedia - has disappeared from Apple's website(!)

• @larsiusprime @larsiusprime on x

  Remember this? “Anything you can do with Flash you can do with JS+Canvas+SVG” Clearly written by a non-artist coder who never used Flash, equivalent to: “Anything you can do with a paintbrush you can also do with a toothpick and an infinite amount of time.”

• @yowgi Nicolas Favre-Felix on x

  @TimSweeneyEpic @larsiusprime That's unfortunate, it looks like it was removed around May-June this year. Thankfully the original is archived at the Wayback Machine, it's an interesting read after 10 years. https://web.archive.org/...

• @larsiusprime @larsiusprime on x

  What really mattered about Flash, in my view: 1) For 95% of applications you can just distribute a single SWF file 2) You have a robust authoring tool that is animation/graphics-first and newbie friendly 3) You can send a link to your mom and she can just play it w/ no issues

• @larsiusprime @larsiusprime on x

  The thing that REALLY REALLY pisses me off is all the people who beat the war drums for Flash's demise, very clearly did not understand what made it so special. “I don't see why this is valuable, therefore it is not valuable”

• @larsiusprime @larsiusprime on x

  HTML5 *at its very best* accomplishes most of 3), and is still in the stone age when it comes to 1) and 2).

• @larsiusprime @larsiusprime on x

  Ultimately this is all Adobe's fault. They just decided Flash wasn't the effort. This is ultimately the problem with all proprietary software platforms — the risk that the platform holder will one day just give up and let it rot but not let YOU pick up and carry the torch.

• @mattmay Matt May on x

  We had a plan to bring Flash accessibility cross-platform, but then in 2010, there was the Apple memo. Flash as a UI tool had peaked, and not long after, it was over. Flash lived out its last years as a great video player with a bunch of legacy content that withered on the vine.

• @waltmossberg Walt Mossberg on x

  @tomwarren And I remember how Adobe allowed it to deteriorate into something that crashed your computer and was a vector for malware.

• @mattmay Matt May on x

  Today is bittersweet for me. I'm glad the web platform won. “HTML5” was in the first sentence I ever uttered to our CEO, in 2008. Still, I and many others poured our hearts into boiling the ocean of inaccessible Flash, quixotic though we were. It could have been so much more.

• @tananarivedue Tananarive Due on x

  Oh no—what will keep my pages from uploading now? https://twitter.com/...

• @lilahsturges Lilah Sturges on x

  I guess I can take “Certified ActionScript Developer” off my résumé now. I HAD TO STUDY FOR THAT. https://twitter.com/...

• @andykhouri Andy Khouri on x

  This is unbelievable for a certain generation of person. Flash enabled some of the most creative shit, and beyond the web too; so much TV animation has roots in the old handmade Flash cartoons. And of course away goes a whole style of beautiful but functionally useless websites. …

• @sarahlefton Sarah Lefton on x

  I was 22 and teaching at @parsonsdesign when Flash came out - I had a brilliant semester length class that brought in traditional artists twice my age and turned out experimental animators. Probably my career highlight. I had no idea what a great gig it was, I was too young. http…

• @glenngabe Glenn Gabe on x

  It's over. My ActionScript coding skills are needed no longer :) -> Adobe ends support for Flash today and will start blocking Flash content from January 12; major browsers will block Flash content from January 1 https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @pjperez Pj Perez on x

  All those months learning to do Flash animation in 2005, gone to waste. https://twitter.com/...

• @grradams Gregory Adams on x

  No surprise this interview has been referenced so many times over the years. From privacy to Flash, among other things, Steve Jobs could always see around the corner. https://www.youtube.com/... https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @joshuahirsch Joshua Hirsch on x

  Flash was my entry into the biz, and I have so many fond memories of the work, the community, and fighting with designers to remove all the frikkin alpha texture layers. https://www.theverge.com/...

• @arsetechnica James Myers on x

  The eulogy for Flash will be delivered in a Format Not Supported

• @marianomike Mike Mariano on x

  Cheers to all my fellow former flash designers and developers! Flash was the software that helped me realize my love for art, design, and code. It also taught me never to rely on one specific tool because tools become obsolete. 🙂 https://twitter.com/...

• @underflowr Rania Chatzi Morosan on x

  Last day of Adobe Flash today and I kinda feel I'm saying goodbye to a childhood friend 😢 https://twitter.com/...

• @tomwarren Tom Warren on x

  Today is an end of an era for Adobe Flash. It's officially end of support day. I remember growing up with Macromedia Flash, and how it helped usher in the first meme videos and web games before being key to YouTube https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @matthewacherry Matthew A. Cherry on x

  Good bye Adobe Flash Player. We had some good times. RIP https://twitter.com/...

• @levie Aaron Levie on x

  Wow. Today is the last day ever for Adobe Flash. 2020 was not joking around.

• @stshank Stephen Shankland on x

  I wrote about this a lot over the years, and I never heard anybody boasting that HTML etc was a “perfect replacement,” but yeah, it's been a long time and the open standards still are generally coder-first tools, not creator-first tools. https://twitter.com/...