Mozilla Blocks Adobe Flash on @Firefox - How to watch Videos without Adobe Flash as Alternatives to Flash exist

Mozilla has had it with Adobe Flash Player!! If you're on the Internet a lot and you frequently use Mozilla Firefox as your main Browser, you may have noticed since Monday July 13^th 2015 that it's blocked.

It's not your imagination and neither is anything wrong with your Browser. Mozilla has disabled Adobe Flash in their Browser as reported in the article “Mozilla Firefox Now Blocks Adobe Flash By Default”, published July 14, 2015 By Kristofer Wouk, Digitaltrends.

On that day Head of Mozilla’s Firefox support team Matt Schmidt made it known via Twitter that all versions of Mozilla Firefox had blocked Adobe Flash by default:

BIG NEWS!! All versions of Flash are blocked by default in Firefox as of now. https://t.co/4SjVoqKPrR #tech #infosec pic.twitter.com/VRws3L0CBW

— Mark Schmidt (@MarkSchmidty) July 14, 2015

The reason for the block seems to be continued problems with vulnerabilities with the software plugin commonly used for Video playback.

Mozilla blocks Adobe Flash – Alternatives to Flash exist as YouTube has gone HTML5

What's strange to me is that there are alternatives to Adobe Flash as reported in the article “4 Most Amazing Alternatives To Adobe Flash Player”, published October 3, 2013, Steve, Transitioning blog and “Adobe Flash Player Alternatives You Can Download”, published Mar 27, 2015 By OD, Ordoh both for mobile and desktop applications:

1.      LightSpark

2.      Unity Web Player

3.      GNU Gnash

4.      Silverlight 

So why aren’t people not using them, especially as some of them have backward compatibility with Video formats that Adobe Flash can play?

Also, the main source of Videos, YouTube, had long switched to HTML5 since the start of 2015 as noted in my Geezam blog article entitled “YouTube switches to HTM5 with Adaptive Bitrate for Better Streaming”.

In fact, the pre-2012 version of the YouTube app on older versions of Google Android on smartphones and devices no longer works as pointed out in my Geezam blog article entitled “YouTube App support on pre-2012 devices ending April 30 2015”. 

Google Chrome has also joined Mozilla Firefox in blocking Adobe Flash as reported in the article “Google and Mozilla pull the plug on Adobe Flash: Tech giants disable the program on browsers following 'critical' security flaw”, published 14 July 2015 By VICTORIA WOOLLASTON, UK Daily Mail, which I've noticed on my Google Chrome Browser when I'm online.

So now that BOTH Browsers agree that Adobe Flash is a menace to privacy online, why did it take so long? And are there alternatives to Adobe Flash?

Mozilla Blocks Adobe Flash - How to watch Videos without Adobe Flash

Good to note here that Mozilla's action isn't permanent, as it's meant to force Adobe to step up their game, to quote Head of Mozilla’s Firefox support team Matt Schmidt: “To be clear, Flash is only blocked until Adobe releases a version which isn’t being actively exploited by publicly known vulnerabilities”.

You can still enable the Adobe Flash plugin by going into the Firefox Settings menu, but for your safety, Mozilla is advising that you not do so until Adobe makes an update available. Up until now, I'm being prompted on both my Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome Browsers to update my Adobe Flash.

I'm one of those persons that believes that we should have moved away from this relic from the 90's that required a periodic update, especially as not doing so often crippled your browsing on the Internet.

So too does Facebook’s chief security officer Alex Stamos as mentioned in the article “Facebook calls for end to Flash as Firefox blocks it over hacking holes”, published Tuesday 14 July 2015 Samuel Gibbs, The UK Guardian, who tweeted on Sunday July 12^th 2015, quote: “…..it is time for Adobe to announce the end-of-life date for Flash and to ask the Browsers to set killbits on the same day.”

It is time for Adobe to announce the end-of-life date for Flash and to ask the browsers to set killbits on the same day.

— Alex Stamos (@alexstamos) July 12, 2015

Adobe Flash has long been dead on the Apple iPhone's Safari Browser from day one. Since 2012, Adobe has stopped updating the mobile version for Google Android as noted in “Adobe halts Flash player support for all future Android updates”, published June 29, 2012 By Mike Flacy, DigitalTrends.

Perhaps we all should do the same, as alternatives to Adobe Flash abound as reported in the article “4 Most Amazing Alternatives To Adobe Flash Player”, published October 3, 2013, Steve, Transitioning blog and “Adobe Flash Player Alternatives You Can Download”, published Mar 27, 2015 By OD, Ordoh.

Your choice if you wish to watch videos or be exposed to hacking vulnerabilities!

Here’s the link:

LightSpark

Unity Web Player

GNU Gnash

Silverlight