Largely, the solution has been making the basic infrastructure of the web (like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) smarter, allowing it to take over the responsibilities of Flash, without introducing the same slowdown and vulnerabilities - and without requiring users to voluntarily download additional software. We're now seeing that change begin to happen.

The situation needed to get really bad before change was possible. Since then, its various challengers have had to fight an uphill battle.

Unless a plugin is bundled with most browsers, there's no way for it to get over the hump to ubiquity.įlash was the first plugin to simultaneously do many media-related tasks competently - as a result, it was able to rise to ubiquity early on. The whole point of the browser is its convenience: the ability to things without needing to install stuff. If you want to create a browser game or play a video, asking users to install a plugin leaves you dead in the water. This grim situation persisted for longer than it should have, because standards have a kind of inertia.

Adobe shows uninstall flash player