[Wowfunhappy]

They really shouldn't make Flash completely unavailable to download. They're cutting off a lot of legacy content with cultural significance.

Yes, using unmaintained software is bad for security. However, the alternative of forcing people to use third party sources—which will all be somewhat shady, since Flash is technically under copyright—is even worse for security! Now, you might be downloading a fake, malicious copy of Adobe Flash! God knows there are enough of those already in circulation...

Put it up on a public company archive server somewhere. I really like what Panic does, all software vendors should have something similar: https://download.panic.com

[TheOperator]

It really doesn't matter insofar that the internet is going to keep copies of shockwave installers for decades long after adobe would ever realistically keep offering downloads.

I do think it would be cool for them to keep offering downloads of the installer. Adobe should be proud of shockwave and show that pride by keeping the installer out there.

[Wowfunhappy]

> the internet is going to keep copies of shockwave installers for decades long after adobe would ever realistically keep offering downloads.

But how can you be sure these are legitimate copies of Shockwave and/or Flash?

[bpye]

Even if archive.org wasn't willing to host the installers because of copyright, they could list known good hashes couldn't they?

[Wowfunhappy]

Sure, and that would be a legitimately great service.

But, many people do you think are going to go and check the hash beforehand? How many people even know how to check the hash? Admittedly, the type of user who will go through so much effort to run old Flash content probably skews more technical, but the point remains.

The alternative is that Adobe could just leave the downloads links up under a giant "Not Supported Don't Use" banner. I know which option I'd find more responsible.

[vorpalhex]

I wonder if Adobe will lay off enforcement and allow archives to host flash player builds. I know there's an electron build that's precompiled with the Flash NPAPI so allow legacy flash apps to still be distributed.

[timw4mail]

Shockwave !== Flash.

Confusing, yes, as Flash was sometimes labeled as Shockwave Flash.

[Wowfunhappy]

The article says they're also discontinuing normal Adobe Flash.

In addition, everything I said applies to Shockwave as well, albeit to a lesser extent.

(Also, what the heck is with that confusing name? It made troubleshooting a Shockwave issue quite annoying a couple years back, because all my searches for "Shockwave" turned up results related to "Shockwave Flash".)

[basch]

The article literally says that Flash will not be discontinued.

>Adobe continues to offer a rich set of content creation tools through Creative Cloud, including Adobe Animate CC for authoring interactive content for multiple platforms, such HTML5 Canvas, WebGL, Flash/Adobe AIR and others.

[Wowfunhappy]

I'm not sure why they mentioned Flash in that press release. I suppose Adobe technically "continues to offer it" as of right now.

Scroll down a little further. There's a subhead titled "Adobe Flash marked for retirement as well"

[basch]

Well color me surprised. That's flippin silly.