Recently a friend of mine asked me a question: "I just got a message that ADOBE Flash is no longer available free of charge in 2021. Does the Ubuntu system have any equivalent Flash Player so that I can continue to watch videos on Facebook etc?"
In order to answer the question my friend just raised, I did a bit of research and digging around, and found that the ADOBE Flash contents and flash player issues are bigger than I initially thought ... It's really a BIG DEAL!!! I myself have a little bit of a deja vu feeling - bringing back some Y2K memories ... 8-)
Well, when the Year 2021 starts, it's not so much that we can't use Adobe Flash Player free of charge, but that Flash Player will no longer be able to play ANY Flash contents, PERIOD!!! In technical terms, Flash Player (in ALL OS's) is officially entering "End-of-Life" (EOL). Below is a FAQ from Adobe Official website about this matter:
https://www.adobe.com/sea/products/flashplayer/end-of-life.htmlIf you google the web, there are no doubt tons of materials explaining & discussing this hot topic! I came across this site, which I find providing a clear enough explanation, and in an easy to understand approach to this issue. Sharing it here:
https://turbofuture.com/computers/The-End-of-Flash-in-2020-Converting-From-Flash-to-HTML5In a nutshell, contents created with this Adobe Flash technology, and the Flash Player that is used to play them - are no longer suitable in a Mobile-centric world of ours today. In fact, with so many security issues & vulnerabilities popping up over the years, and with one after another mainstream web browsers, device makers as well as content creators abandoning Flash in droves, most could see the writing on the wall long ago ...
For people who are relying heavily on social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, Youtube, etc, with substantial amounts of contents already in Flash - not to fear! The big players in this field have started making all the necessary changes to transition towards replacing technologies like HTML5, etc, long ago. Below is one such FAQ's from FB:
https://www.facebook.com/fbgaminghome/blog/flash-end-of-life-approaching-options-for-developersHowever, no doubt there will be individuals or small-time content creators out there who may find such efforts to migrate from Flash to HTML5 daunting. If you have content like online courses, apps and other learning assets built in or published in Flash, as of 2021, any flash content (either built in or published as Flash) may no longer work. Not to fear too! There are plenty of resources out there (especially on the Web), to make such transition less stressful.
Feel free to share your opinions on this issue here ... Would very much like to hear comments about this (like, any implication to FOSS, etc) - from the FOSS Community's perspective.