Facebook security chief Alex Stamos has called for the end of Adobe Flash, following the lead of the late Steve Jobs, who wrote he would not allow Flash to run on Apple products because of the security issues associated with it.
Since then, Adobe hasn't really cleaned up its act when it comes to Flash, leading to continued support for its end. Stamos, for example, stated publically that it is time Flash was gone.
"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," said Stamos in a tweet. "Even if 18 months from now, one set date is the only way to disentangle the dependencies and upgrade the whole ecosystem at once," he continued in the comments section.
The call to put an end to Flash likely has something to do with the recent revelations surrounding the software, such as the highly covered hack of Hacking Team, which saw a number of vulnerabilities of Flash being disclosed. While Adobe has patched these issues, new vulnerabilities continue to be discovered.
"The truth is that the company would probably gain a lot more respect from the internet community if it worked towards this ultimate fix for the Flash problem, rather than clinging on to the belief that it might be able to one day make Flash secure," said security expert Graham Cluley in a blog post.
Flash isn't as necessary anymore since there are other, more secure options such as HTML5 available to users. Facebook uses both Flash and HTML5, depending on the preference of the browser a user relies on. A "kill date" would, of course, be a big issue for smaller companies that don't have the same money as Facebook, with some companies likely to have to rethink their software design. Despite this, many suggest that in the long run it is the best solution to the security problems associated with Flash.
YouTube has also recently moved away from using Flash, and is also moving toward favoring HTML5, which is the newest version of the markup language used on the Internet for structuring and presenting content. It works with moible interfaces, as Flash does not, and is regarded as being more secure than Flash.
Of course, Adobe completely killing off Flash isn't that likely, especially with Adobe wanting to think that it has the security of Flash under control.
It's also important to note that Stamos isn't calling for an immediate end to Flash, but rather a date in the future, allowing companies to adapt their software to be completely Flash-less.
