Microsoft drives an Edge between Adobe and the web: Flash ads blocked Microsoft will disable Flash ads by default in new versions of its Edge browser. The Redmond software peddler said the upcoming Anniversary Update to Windows 10 will introduce a switched-on setting that disables some Flash content, requiring users to specifically activate Adobe's plugin. If you have the Windows Insider preview …
And I thought that was ofcom, preventing me using BTWholesale Speedchecker to see how really slow my Broadband is at peak times.
Seriously ofcom, why is the outdated BTWholesale Speedchecker still using Adobe Flash FFS.
On one hand Gov regulators like ofcom expect people to use Antivirus, on the other they allow BT to continue using bug ridden tools such as this for customers to check the network.
Adobe moved all development offshore way back in 2005. Offshore resources were just maintenance developers. Flash comes from the desktop era where software inefficiencies didn't matter. We are now in the mobile era where software efficiencies do matter. Maintenance developers can't really rewrite a product from the ground up to make it as efficient as required in today's environment. HTML5 filled that niche after Adobe couldn't in 5+ years. You know you're bad when you get beat to the market by a consortium.
Microsoft is now in the mobile market with the Surface line. Flash is a slow, obsolete relic with little benefit. Microsoft, looking for everything to make their mobile products improve, cut the negative benefit Flash by blocking ads while keeping the little-benefit Flash by trying to predict where the desired content is located on the page.
Apple went this direction in 2010 with the iPad and the tech media threw a hissy fit.
"2: the "autoplay next video" feature that can't be permanently disabled"
The breaking news doesn't bother me too much but the autoplay is just bizarrely ridiculous. I can't understand why anyone thought it was a great idea, can't see any reason for it at all.
It's not as though they have advertising on the BBC News site for their key market so forcing extra videos down people's throats is unlikely to be to do with ad revenue. And just the premise that after watching one news video (news: etymology new things) you are likely to want to watch another news video which may not be news but olds.
It doesn't remember your autoplay:off setting. I can't believe any user of their site likes the autoplay feature.
The ads, that is. For five years or so, I've used a Flash-blocking plugin in Chrome as a poor man's ad blocker. It's served me well enough. I don't actually desire to deprive my news sites of revenue, I just hate the distracting and patently ridiculous nature of autoplay ads with fucking sound (yes, I've now noticed your product, now FUCK OFF!!! -- IBM used to be great for these).
That all changed yesterday when El Reg started having HTML5 animated ads that were super annoying. I've now joined the horde of angry AdBlock+ users. Thanks, El Reg!
"Microsoft noted that the change will help conserve memory and processor use by disabling the auto-run features some pages use for Flash ads."
If they actually cared about system resource use, they would not have bundled the invasive unwanted service which is Cortana.
If they actually cared about system resource use, they would not have bundled the invasive unwanted service which is Cortana.
But then they'd lose all that juicy data.
For what its worth Cortana does appear to require you to sign in with MS account. So it seems like easiest way to stop Cortana from running is to not bother with MS account.
Both Adobe and Macromedia.
I they had published flash as an open source player, they would own the interwebs.
But alas they were short-sighted, like many other (Blackberry comes to mind not releasing an Android phone 2 years earlier) they tried to choose fast and painless at an ATM but what they got instead was a suicide booth's "Slow and painful".
Microsoft is telling them: "You're dead, have a nice day"
"Flash has caused so much grief for so many people. It is clear that sites that make heavy use of it have a lot to answer for."
Yes, especially considering that people with phones and certain kinds of intarweb service PAY FOR BANDWIDTH OVERAGES one way or another (either speed throttling, or extra $ paid to telco) so those IRRITATING ADVERTISEMENTS are AS BAD AS E-MAIL SPAM, as if your weekly advertisement dead-tree junkmail was ALL! SENT! WITH! POSTAGE! DUE!!!
So Microsoft "grew a clue" today. Good. Job. <slow clap>
(if advertisers could do it, they'd reach out of our monitors and rub our noses in the ads)
It's good to see that Microsoft finally tries to slay the dragon's head that's Flash, however it's ugly replacement heads have already grown in the form of miss used Javascript.
We already have lots of web sites that require _megabytes_ of Javascript to run just to display a quasi-static page.
The problem is that, during the browser wars days, there was the idiotic idea that you should be able to design a web page, just like you could design what is on a piece of paper. This has lead to thousands of features which allow you to specify how a page should look like instead of just specifying your content and letting the browser decide. Today with different screen sizes this adds the added complexity of designers having to "respond" to different screen sizes.
Most web developers (or at least the tools they use) seem to create pages to fit an A4 size tablet screen in portrait mode, rather than the more usual wide screen in landscape.
And it's not like this is new, with the advent of tablets, this was being done years before mobile browsing was a thing!
This portrait design, often results in underutilised bands down the side of the pages, and then forcing people to scroll down to see the bottom half of the article, when the whole thing could likely have fitted on to one screen, if they'd have used the width better (i.e. dynamically like web pages should do).
It's as if people are using MS Word or Publisher to create their web sites!
I often read the Reg via it's mobile site, even on a desktop, as it makes better use of the screen, has less clutter, and usually has the longer articles as a single page, whereas the desktop site splits these up into multiple pages for some reason?!
In a move that resembles Google's push for encryption, Microsoft's blocking of Flash is mere distraction. It's like banning fat people from the higher part of the tower of Pisa; it does nothing to address the fundamental security problems this platform has to cope with*.
Worse, as they will soon have people on subscription, the last incentive disappears to ever fix it.
Too little, too late, too futile.
(*) Traditionalists can use the deckchairs & Titanic analogy.
I am tired of Flash aren't you?
We are living in the first year of the post-Flash era - doesn't it feel great I know I feel great.
We need to kick out Flash and make the internet great again.
Users are calling me up all the time and do you know what they are saying? they are saying thank you for uninstalling Flash from my computer it runs great now.
It's always amusing when Microsoft anounces something that's been around for ages as if it was some brand new innovation only coming out of Redmond, in this case flash blocking.
"One of our top priorities in building Edge has been that the web should be a dependably safe, performant, and reliable place for our customers"
The web isn't the problem, it's the innovative desktop on the other end that isn't.
"To that end, we're introducing a change to give users more control over the power and resources consumed by Flash"
Thank you Microsoft for allowing me to switch off flash videos on my computer.
The problem is that there still are a very large number of sites that require FLASH. So turning off Flash is fine (did this) but you then realize that you are locked out of many sites. So either turn on FLASH or move elsewhere... but if it's a site you need to access,what are your choices?
This post has been deleted by its author
If it wasn't for the vast array of iOS/Android devices coming to market, Flash would probably be a lot more prevalent today than it is. The BBC were slow to catch on what a wretched platform it is, proving content providers are still king over technical common sense.
Steve Jobs rightly called this one, long before it Bill Gates / Ballmer ever did, at the time it appeared somewhat protectionist, but time has come to show it was a rational, calculated decision by him. It was a good call by Jobs, whether you like Apple or not.
My GF is currently doing a two year networking and cyber security course at the local college.
They throw a few other bits into the course, like specing up a server, and also include a few lessons on computer animation.
They use Adobe Flash to teach this part of the course!
Whoever sets the curriculum, needs taking out back and putting out of their misery, along with Flash.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
