6 ms·

Serious question - are they're any popular (define that how you like) sites that prominently use / require Flash?

by hundchenkatze 6y ago

__s 6y ago
Kongregate. Flash games are still out there, like elementsthegame.com
eyjafjallajokul 6y ago
I don’t think any popular websites still use flash. Corporate internal systems though...
- kanox 6y ago
  Only reason I've used flash in the last few years was to file PTO.
- bitwize 6y ago
  Homestar Runner has been youtubing its old Flash content, but something is lost because the content was interactive. Hope they work something out with Ruffle or similar to archive the old site as is. The kids of today deserve to play Bronco Trolleys, Stinkoman, and Trogdor.
m0xte 6y ago
A large amount of the crap that was sold to U.K. schools is still random bits of rancid flash. The same schools also bought crates of iPads galore on which none of the software works. It’s a mess.
Orphis 6y ago
A lot of banks unfortunately.
merlyn 6y ago
I wouldn't say popular, but many of my internal network or SAN management items are flash based. Many are EOL'd, and can't be upgraded. The only option is throw out working hardware just because we can no longer manage it... Or another example, older VMware setups that may not be fully upgraded yet (again perhaps with older hardware preventing upgrades). All flash managed.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Can't you just run old browser versions with Flash in a VM somewhere? (Or a dedicated system.)
jessedhillon 6y ago
Ikea has a closet planner[0] that is actually quite good. It lets you visualize closet frames in 3D by placing them within a virtual bedroom, then add shelves, drawers and other accessories inside of them. Then once you're done, it can put all of your items into your cart or generate a shopping list. It's probably ~10 years old at this point, so it would seem they've had long enough to see the writing on the wall and port it to a newer technology. OTOH I'm not sure that, even today, the stability or penetration of WebGL is comparable to where Flash was at its height (to say nothing of the available talent pool.) I've taken a screenshot[1] so anyone who doesn't have Flash can take a look. [0] https://www.ikea.com/us/en/planner/pax-planner/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/planner/pax-planner/ [1] https://imgur.com/a/WW1lDCB https://imgur.com/a/WW1lDCB
- shadowgovt 6y ago
  The larger issue than stability is that WebGL is an entirely different framework, serving entirely different ends. For the abstractions Flash supported (objects with behaviors, scenes, timelines), WebGL is way, way too low-level. WebGL is more the kind of thing someone would write Flash on top of.
- robin_reala 6y ago
  I think it’s OK to say that work is ongoing in this area.
- logotype 6y ago
  13 years ago I was working on a project for IKEA, a room planner. We used Flash and it was a seriously ambitious project. The level of interactivity that was possible when using Flash was unrivalled for a long time. It appears that most of these type of “sites” has been replaced by native apps, even though the web platform has most of the required capabilities now. Flash was fun to develop with, as everything was well integrated and just worked, and pioneered many of the technologies we now see as part of the web platform APIs. A lot of the criticisms of Flash is due to shitty timeline-based banners which used up the CPU. You could definitively make efficient, fast performing apps/sites using Flash/AS3 if you knew what you were doing. Of course I moved on to JS/TS development, but it isn’t as fun.
altoidaltoid 6y ago
My company contracts with a security training site. All the videos requires Flash. <sigh>
- adrianmonk 6y ago
  I hope this training is about physical security, not IT security.
  - JiNCMG 6y ago
    LOL! You fail the moment you login in with Flash!
    - adrianmonk 6y ago
      A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
  - kstrauser 6y ago
    Maybe it was a pentesting lab and you get credit for the number of Flash instances you pwn.
- sah2ed 6y ago
  Are there any plans to move the content to a non-Flash solution?
kgwxd 6y ago
A good chunk of educational tools. I've had to fight with Chrome quite a few times since schooling from home started.
jasode 6y ago
The Citi credit card has a feature to generate "virtual card numbers" for one-time use but unfortunately, it's not purely web-based and requires the Flash runtime.
- flareback 6y ago
  Discover card used to have that feature. It was also a web-based flash app. I was hoping they'd rewrite it to not use Flash and keep it but they just killed the feature off.
momothereal 6y ago
Adobe Connect (Zoom equivalent) still uses Flash in the browser. Had to use it for some uni courses.
- vimslayer 6y ago
  I had to use Adobe Connect recently and they also had the option to install Adobe Connect as a desktop app that seemed awful lot like it was just Chrome/Electron with Flash preinstalled... Also no Linux support, which was fun to notice just before the meeting.
  - momothereal 6y ago
    Haha, I actually had the exact same flow. Guess I'll have to keep the dual-booted Windows for a little while longer.
oldmanhorton 6y ago
Xfinity Stream, the web viewer for Xfinity cable TV subscriptions, required flash as of a few months ago (haven't used it recently)
- LeoPanthera 6y ago
  Just checked, seems to use HTML5 video now. Works for me and I don't have Flash.
  - snazz 6y ago
    If I remember correctly, Xfinity Stream used Flash as a fallback when Widevine was unavailable. I just use the iPad app now.
acwan93 6y ago
The only thing I use on a semi regular basis that requires Flash is flight school lessons from King Schools. It's probably the only time I use Chrome. I'd imagine businesses and organizations where software and tech isn't their primary investment would take some time to move away from Flash, especially if they have a business that depends on Flash still working. It's probably similar to the scenario where there's some vital app that requires computers to stay on Mac OS X Snow Leopard / Mojave / Windows 32-bit.
lewiscollard 6y ago
livestream.com (owned by Vimeo) still requires Flash when I access it with Firefox. I occasionally used it to find obscure/minor motorsports livestreams from random parts of the world (before lockdown put an end to most of that).
flareback 6y ago
I was a contractor for a large insurance company (Fortune top 10). One of the main applications they used internally for managing mailings to people was a flash app. When I was hired my first question was when are we rewriting it and was told "It's being planned". I left in December and they still didn't have a plan.
vimslayer 6y ago
Finland's government-owned railway company, VR, has a notoriously bad train ticket reservation system that still uses Flash. They've only recently started to roll out more modern versions of the app (that are actually surprisingly ok quality from what I've seen). At some point (like years ago) when browsers started dropping support for Flash, we got some nice hacky solutions [1] from tired consumers because VR themselves weren't stepping up their game. At some point I even saw VR promoting that project on their Twitter as a solution when someone complained that they couldn't book tickets. They should've paid the author and just put it on their site. [1]: https://github.com/tuomassalo/vr-no-flash https://github.com/tuomassalo/vr-no-flash
panzagl 6y ago
Things like the web interfaces for UPSes, network storage, and blade server chassis of a certain age seem to be pretty evenly split between Flash and Java Applets, which is even worse.

Serious question - are they're any popular (define that how you like) sites that prominently use / require Flash?

__s 6y ago

Kongregate. Flash games are still out there, like elementsthegame.com

eyjafjallajokul 6y ago

I don’t think any popular websites still use flash. Corporate internal systems though...

kanox 6y ago
Only reason I've used flash in the last few years was to file PTO.
bitwize 6y ago
Homestar Runner has been youtubing its old Flash content, but something is lost because the content was interactive. Hope they work something out with Ruffle or similar to archive the old site as is. The kids of today deserve to play Bronco Trolleys, Stinkoman, and Trogdor.

m0xte 6y ago

A large amount of the crap that was sold to U.K. schools is still random bits of rancid flash. The same schools also bought crates of iPads galore on which none of the software works. It’s a mess.

Orphis 6y ago

A lot of banks unfortunately.

merlyn 6y ago

I wouldn't say popular, but many of my internal network or SAN management items are flash based. Many are EOL'd, and can't be upgraded. The only option is throw out working hardware just because we can no longer manage it... Or another example, older VMware setups that may not be fully upgraded yet (again perhaps with older hardware preventing upgrades). All flash managed.

ghaff 6y ago
Can't you just run old browser versions with Flash in a VM somewhere? (Or a dedicated system.)

jessedhillon 6y ago

Ikea has a closet planner[0] that is actually quite good. It lets you visualize closet frames in 3D by placing them within a virtual bedroom, then add shelves, drawers and other accessories inside of them. Then once you're done, it can put all of your items into your cart or generate a shopping list. It's probably ~10 years old at this point, so it would seem they've had long enough to see the writing on the wall and port it to a newer technology. OTOH I'm not sure that, even today, the stability or penetration of WebGL is comparable to where Flash was at its height (to say nothing of the available talent pool.) I've taken a screenshot[1] so anyone who doesn't have Flash can take a look. [0] https://www.ikea.com/us/en/planner/pax-planner/ https://www.ikea.com/us/en/planner/pax-planner/ [1] https://imgur.com/a/WW1lDCB https://imgur.com/a/WW1lDCB

shadowgovt 6y ago
The larger issue than stability is that WebGL is an entirely different framework, serving entirely different ends. For the abstractions Flash supported (objects with behaviors, scenes, timelines), WebGL is way, way too low-level. WebGL is more the kind of thing someone would write Flash on top of.
robin_reala 6y ago
I think it’s OK to say that work is ongoing in this area.
logotype 6y ago
13 years ago I was working on a project for IKEA, a room planner. We used Flash and it was a seriously ambitious project. The level of interactivity that was possible when using Flash was unrivalled for a long time. It appears that most of these type of “sites” has been replaced by native apps, even though the web platform has most of the required capabilities now. Flash was fun to develop with, as everything was well integrated and just worked, and pioneered many of the technologies we now see as part of the web platform APIs. A lot of the criticisms of Flash is due to shitty timeline-based banners which used up the CPU. You could definitively make efficient, fast performing apps/sites using Flash/AS3 if you knew what you were doing. Of course I moved on to JS/TS development, but it isn’t as fun.

altoidaltoid 6y ago

My company contracts with a security training site. All the videos requires Flash. <sigh>

adrianmonk 6y ago
I hope this training is about physical security, not IT security.
- JiNCMG 6y ago
  LOL! You fail the moment you login in with Flash!
  - adrianmonk 6y ago
    A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
- kstrauser 6y ago
  Maybe it was a pentesting lab and you get credit for the number of Flash instances you pwn.
sah2ed 6y ago
Are there any plans to move the content to a non-Flash solution?

kgwxd 6y ago

A good chunk of educational tools. I've had to fight with Chrome quite a few times since schooling from home started.

jasode 6y ago

The Citi credit card has a feature to generate "virtual card numbers" for one-time use but unfortunately, it's not purely web-based and requires the Flash runtime.

flareback 6y ago
Discover card used to have that feature. It was also a web-based flash app. I was hoping they'd rewrite it to not use Flash and keep it but they just killed the feature off.

momothereal 6y ago

Adobe Connect (Zoom equivalent) still uses Flash in the browser. Had to use it for some uni courses.

vimslayer 6y ago
I had to use Adobe Connect recently and they also had the option to install Adobe Connect as a desktop app that seemed awful lot like it was just Chrome/Electron with Flash preinstalled... Also no Linux support, which was fun to notice just before the meeting.
- momothereal 6y ago
  Haha, I actually had the exact same flow. Guess I'll have to keep the dual-booted Windows for a little while longer.

oldmanhorton 6y ago

Xfinity Stream, the web viewer for Xfinity cable TV subscriptions, required flash as of a few months ago (haven't used it recently)

LeoPanthera 6y ago
Just checked, seems to use HTML5 video now. Works for me and I don't have Flash.
- snazz 6y ago
  If I remember correctly, Xfinity Stream used Flash as a fallback when Widevine was unavailable. I just use the iPad app now.

acwan93 6y ago

The only thing I use on a semi regular basis that requires Flash is flight school lessons from King Schools. It's probably the only time I use Chrome. I'd imagine businesses and organizations where software and tech isn't their primary investment would take some time to move away from Flash, especially if they have a business that depends on Flash still working. It's probably similar to the scenario where there's some vital app that requires computers to stay on Mac OS X Snow Leopard / Mojave / Windows 32-bit.

lewiscollard 6y ago

livestream.com (owned by Vimeo) still requires Flash when I access it with Firefox. I occasionally used it to find obscure/minor motorsports livestreams from random parts of the world (before lockdown put an end to most of that).

flareback 6y ago

I was a contractor for a large insurance company (Fortune top 10). One of the main applications they used internally for managing mailings to people was a flash app. When I was hired my first question was when are we rewriting it and was told "It's being planned". I left in December and they still didn't have a plan.

vimslayer 6y ago

Finland's government-owned railway company, VR, has a notoriously bad train ticket reservation system that still uses Flash. They've only recently started to roll out more modern versions of the app (that are actually surprisingly ok quality from what I've seen). At some point (like years ago) when browsers started dropping support for Flash, we got some nice hacky solutions [1] from tired consumers because VR themselves weren't stepping up their game. At some point I even saw VR promoting that project on their Twitter as a solution when someone complained that they couldn't book tickets. They should've paid the author and just put it on their site. [1]: https://github.com/tuomassalo/vr-no-flash https://github.com/tuomassalo/vr-no-flash

panzagl 6y ago

Things like the web interfaces for UPSes, network storage, and blade server chassis of a certain age seem to be pretty evenly split between Flash and Java Applets, which is even worse.