I'm half-okay half-sad of this. On the one hand, Unity and HTML5 have proven their worth for web games - there are several good ones for that. And HTML5 is a BEAST for video. And either option, mostly, is a lot more secure than Flash - and security is always a good thing. On the other hand, I am sad for two main reasons: Flash is internet history at this point. Newgrounds, AlbinoBlackSheep, the defunct Shockwave.com website - all of these would not be part of our collective memory if it wasn't for Flash. And many websites will suffer of it - because let's face it, videos have left Flash - but the vast people who make games that are destined to be free on the Internet and played in a browser only know Flash because of how easy it is to use yet how complex it can be made. And the death of Flash means the possible death of 4chan's /f/ and of SWFChan (and as an extension, all of the websites dedicated to storing old flashes for nostalgia) - and that is a huge loss because of the sheer amount of content held there. No more Demented Cartoon Movie in full quality. No more Pico's School. No more nothing. I wish Flash went open-source so that it could be fixed.
>(and as an extension, all of the websites dedicated to storing old flashes for nostalgia) - and that is a huge loss because of the sheer amount of content held there. we can still use old software to view these old SWFs. >I wish Flash went open-source so that it could be fixed. the free GNU gnash plays them all.
First, for the "old software" - it will work up to a point, as time goes we may need to build new tools to emulate Flash and such simply because of how old it will have grown. But it sounds like Gnash may be a solution to this - I didn't know about that piece of software.