An Overdue Farewell to Flash

I'm very late to the party on this one, as I will elaborate. But it is finally time for me to say goodbye to an era of games, movies, and other joys that Flash brought to the world.

Pictured: The flash logo. But you probably could have figured that out from context.

For the unimitated, Adobe Flash was a piece of software published in the mid-1990s that used to be a common format for web-based games, animations, and other internet-based elements. It's ease of use for developers made it extremely popular, particularly among people getting their start with coding and creating content for the online world. In 2013, Adobe announced that, of over 1 billion desktops, over 400 million updated their Flash software within 6 weeks of an update coming out. Even outside of games and animations, countless websites integrated Flash to add motion and animation to previously static sites.

The popularity of Flash coincided with a part of internet history between the very early internet and the more mature internet we know and love today. The internet was in a kind of adolescence where developers were beginning to realize the full potential of types of content that could be created and how the internet could be used.

Due to its relative simplicity, many individuals used Flash to create countless games. The format lent itself to smaller experiences than stand-alone games released for consoles and computers. Disseminated through sharing sites like Newgrounds.com, these games paved the way for "casual games", often being bite sized or simple. However, unlike stand-alone games, these games were typically free. This led to extreme popularity among users; if you didn't like a Flash game, you could just hop onto another one. An explosion of creativity followed with tens of thousands of games being created during its lifetime.

The beginning of the end for Flash started in the iPhone era. The late Steve Jobs – citing security risks, performance issues, and battery demands – decided that the iPhone would not support the format. Initially, many were annoyed that a large amount of content was inaccessible from mobile devices, which represented more and more of internet traffic. In an effort to not be left behind, developers began to pivot to other avenues of development, the most common of which was HTML5 (which has been revised a bit, but is still used today). Additionally, more modern formats would allow the integration of elements previously accomplished with Flash without needing third-party software. Eventually, even Google decided to not support flash-based ads, one of the few remaining uses of the format. Seeing the decline, Adobe decided it was time to pull the plug; the software was discontinued and updated versions of Flash simply stopped working.

Pictured: What you see when you go to the old download page for Flash.

This is not to say that there aren't games filling this space of the market anymore; you can still find plenty of free online games to play (even Newgrounds is still around). In addition, the mobile market has also increased the visibility of casual gaming, bringing it to many who would never play computer games otherwise. Plus, there were real security and other issues plaguing the format – Jobs did have a point. It's also not like these games are lost to time either; BlueMaxima's Flashpoint is a preservation project that has over 100,000 games saved and available for free (I told you there were a lot of games made).

Yet, even though the discontinuation of Flash makes total sense, I've still not uninstalled it. Every time I power up my computer, Adobe has a popup urging me to do so. And every time I'm asked, I keep clicking "remind me later." I've done this for two years now; I just can't bring myself to part with it. There are definitely nostalgia blinders at work, but it feels wrong to uninstall the software that made the internet what it is today.

Pictured: Flash still being installed on my computer.

I was not allowed to have a console for much of my childhood; Flash games filled that void. I spent many an hour browsing through Newgrounds and other arcade sites discovering creative and fun games. It has a special place in my heart; thinking about uninstalling it literally made me cry. It feels like I'm grieving the loss of a childhood friend. Even now as I type this, I can feel myself tearing up.

So it sits on my computer. But it's purely symbolic at this point; the software simply doesn't work anymore. After genuine struggles, I concluded that it is finally time. Today is the day I finally do what Adobe wants me to do. It's time for me to finally uninstall Flash. And I'm going to do it while I'm writing this.

Pictured: The uninstaller.

I can feel a pit in my stomach. But at the same time, it is so weird seeing the flash logo on my computer in an application. It's a reminder of how long it has been.

Pictured: It is done.

It took a grand total of five seconds to uninstall. I mean, it was only a few megabytes. After the uninstall completed, Adobe decided to rub it in a bit more.

Pictured: Ouch. Way to rub it in Adobe.

And that's it. In all likelihood I'll probably never have Flash installed again; there's no real reason to. Everything has migrated over. Through writing this, I've been able to get a bit of closure. I'll still likely talk about this in therapy though.

Goodbye old friend. Your impact was undeniable. I feel like it's weird being this attached to a piece of software, but I hope that, through this essay, it makes some sense.