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Hey all, Flash content will still find life beyond the end of the official Flash Player, and alternatives to preserve and make that content work (even in-browser!) are here, albeit still developing! A thread:
Flash Player will no longer be working in browsers by Jan 12. And while that removes the core functionality to display Flash content from browsers, new tech and options are emerging to replace it! Let's look at some of them (won't get too into the weeds I promise):
1) Porting of content. Okay, this is more straight forward, some popular games are already ported to HTML5 or being brought to PC/mobile platforms like Steam via AIR or other tech. Likewise many animations/videos are getting rendered to modern video formats.
2) Plugins / Desktop apps. Newgrounds is providing a downloadable Newgrounds Player which will help display Flash content on their site. Likewise other portals are exploring these options as well and should be a good option for keeping a good chunk of content rolling.
3) Emulation. Several emulators (most notably, Ruffle, an open-source project!) leverages newer browser tech to run content naturally in the browser. IMHO emulation is the most promising as it maintains the way Flash content is displayed, without any user downloads/installs.
While I think emulation is the best path forward for Flash content, it's a LOT of work to get right. Flash under the hood does a lot of magic, remember Flash came out decades ago when we had dial up modems and the tech was built with file size/performance in-mind.
So where does that leave us? When Flash Player expires a lot of content might not work. But emulation will continue to get better. Plugins will as well. Content will get ported. It won't be super smooth, but Flash content won't be gone forever. It's just taking a well-earned nap.
What can you do? Kick a few dollars/volunteer for Ruffle project ( https://ruffle.rs/#get-involved ). Send positive vibes about Flash content (we love Flash, we always will). Support independent creators, as you did so well when Flash was at its prime.
/end, thanks!
/end, thanks!
