The world was in stands until we found out that Microsoft was discontinuing our beloved Adobe Flash Player. YES!!! Microsoft has given an official statement informing all users that it is going to discontinue its support to the Flash support. Adobe has dropped all support and has said that after December 2020 there will be no further updates and neither will Adobe Flash Reader be available on the website for download. What’s more is Google, Mozilla and Microsoft have said that they too will stop Flash Reader from their web browser Chrome, Firefox & Edge respectively. And this is the only reason why users have started searching for Adobe Flash Player alternatives. Of course, it cannot be replaced but there are various substitutes for the same!
Contents
- 3 Best Adobe Flash Player Alternatives
- 3.5 #5. BlueMaxima Flashpoint Secure Player
The Lightspark plugin only supports the NPAPI (a plugin api). However, Opera (and Chrome) only support the PPAPI on Linux. Therefore, Lightspark won't work. I recommend that you install the pepperflashplugin-nonfree package instead. (which isn't open source but I doubt that could be a demand from your side as Opera is a closed source browser). Hi all, I hope this is the correct place to post this. I recently got a free PowerBook G4 Mac laptop off a friend who no longer uses it. It comes with OS X Tiger, which is fine, but slow, and a little outdated when it comes to internet browsing. Can someone recommend me a light distro that. Jan 15, 2021 Lightspark is another open-source Flash player for Windows and Linux that aims to support all Flash formats. The project was updated as recently as mid-2020, but currently supports only around 76% of Flash APIs, which means that some things simply aren’t going to work, as evidenced on the support status page. The Lightspark plugin only supports the NPAPI (a plugin api). However, Opera (and Chrome) only support the PPAPI on Linux. Therefore, Lightspark won't work. I recommend that you install the pepperflashplugin-nonfree package instead. (which isn't open source but I doubt that could be a demand from your side as Opera is a closed source browser.
Why did Adobe Flash Player Shut Down?
Adobe Flash Player without a doubt has been the turning point in industry when it was launched and created havoc upon websites making them look primitive if they had not used the software to update their contents online. This trend took a go and everyone adopted the type and fame of Adobe Flash Player to make their sites look more eye catching and attractive.
Even with the spread like a wildfire, some big guns in the industry like Google and Apple did not support or accept this software from the word go. Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple took it on a public stage to list out all the disadvantages of the Flash Player. Since then, step by step, we have gradually seen the demise of this software to the point now that it has vanquished and now users have started looking for Flash Player replacement options as well.
Here are a few reasons pointed out by the technology experts as to why Adobe discontinued Flash Player.
- Battery Consumption – Flash files were consuming a lot of ram and battery as they used to exploit resources and hence the batteries of mobile phones as well as laptops drained quickly.
- Performance Damage – As the Flash Player was constantly hungry for resources, it caused damage to the overall computer or mobile speed and often browsers crashed due to them.
- Weak Security – It was long understood the Flash Player was rife with glitches and flaws that Adobe always appeared hesitant to patch. Because it operated within the web browser as a third-party programme, it also became a target for hacker attacks, serving as the weakest link in the chain.
- No Patch for Touch Control – The software was designed in the early times when touchscreen wasn’t a thing. So when the technology developed, the software couldn’t. This caused a major gap and hence a breakoff in the usage of Adobe Flash Player.
This strain increased until 2017, when Adobe, Google, Apple, and Microsoft agreed that Flash would have to be absolutely abandoned by the end of 2020. Even the most committed fans of Flash began searching at Adobe Flash Player replacement after the news broke. Since then, people have gone all the way to try and find the best Adobe Flash Player alternatives.
What is the Best Flash Player Alternative?
It is always difficult to replace the best there is. It is nearly impossible to replace Messi from Barcelona, M.S Dhoni from Indian cricket team and Kobe from our memories since they were the best there was. Yet as it is said, life moves on and so should we.
Some of the alternatives to Adobe Flash Player for both Windows 10 & Android are HTML5, Photon Flash Player & Browser, Supernova, Lightspark, BlueMaxima Flashpoint Secure Player.
Best Adobe Flash Player Alternatives
We’ve listed down all the above mentioned software and explained in detail about them so you can know better and select wisely. Choose which flash player suits you and try it for yourself as the Adobe Flash Player has discontinued and we have to move on!
#1. HTML5
HTML5 is the most predominant and most common alternative to Adobe Flash Player. The announcement by Adobe that Flash support is ending is a straightforward answer as to how long HTML5 will go. Now, HTML which stands for Hypertext Markup Language, in its fifth edition. It is a type of coding language that enables online display of text, images, programmes, tags, and other components.
By distributing content on the web, HTML5 has slowly replaced Flash Player. Adobe Animate CC also provides HTML5 canvas with the ability to publish basic Flash content. The plug-ins that depend on Adobe Flash are going down and are going to stop entirely in 2020 after Adobe officially pulled the Flash plug off. Without a doubt HTML5 is the best Adobe Flash Player alternative.
#2. Photon Flash Player and Browser
Photon Flash Player and Browser is a web browser for Android with Flash Player support. What makes Photon Flash Player and Browser helpful is that in order to play the flash content, users do not need to install any other app. All you need to do is start using this flash-based web browser and it will display all the icons and flash-based content.
This is the best replacement for Adobe Flash Player because of its directive and the interface. It is easy to use and if you are switching from Adobe Flash Player to this application. It is worth noting that as good as it is, it does not solve all the issues Adobe version of this app was facing.
#3. Supernova
Supernova is an extension, like Flash Player, that is readily accessible on the Google Chrome Store and can be enabled on your web browser almost as easily. You will play Shockwave Flash (.swf) games that are optimised for use with Adobe Flash Player. In addition, it also provides a standalone player that can be loaded and run from any web browser on your PC.
Supernova is listed as one of the best Adobe Flash Player alternative as it brings in a choice to do what you could do with the Adobe Flash Player and much more. This is why the following software has cracked our list in the top choices.
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#4. Lightspark
Lightspark is an open-source alternative to the Adobe flash player on the list that is written in C/C++ and runs on Linux. You will find Lightspark’s code on Github. This is the reason why Lightspark is another best Adobe Flash Player alternative.
Lightspark has not been changed for a while; that means any of the new Flash-based contents won’t be played. Keep in mind that this is Linux based and hence you are bound to get all the new updates and patches from time to time.
#5. BlueMaxima Flashpoint Secure Player
A project was launched at the beginning of 2018 to preserve the internet’s history and the loved games and videos that were thought to be extinct when the Adobe Flash Player was gone. Therefore, with the main intention of protecting and promoting anything on the internet that only supported Flash Player at the time, a non-profit programme was created known as BlueMaxima’s Flashpoint.
Started as a small initiative, Flashpoint is now an international success that gives an indication of the importance and legacy of the internet. Not only does it deliver a single Stable Player for Flashpoint, but 2 separate versions and hence is definitely a prime contender for one of the best Adobe Flash Player alternatives.
Closing Thoughts!
There is no doubt all of us are still missing how Adobe Flash Player worked and solved all our issues online, yet, it is what it is. These new replacement options have brought in more features, trends to the usage of flash players and have eradicated the issues which were previously faced by the users while using Adobe Flash Player.
There is no doubt that one of these flash players is going to be your alternative to Adobe Flash Player and hence let us know in the comment which of the following was the one you’re going to choose and why. Stay tuned to know more about the day in and day outs of these software and all the happenings in the technological market.
On January 12, Adobe activated their End-Of-Life Killswitch, disabling Flash Player on millions of machines worldwide. Needless to say, not everyone is happy with the decision.
Many members of the Flash community have come up with workarounds to continue to run .swf files in the post-EOL era. Read on to find a workaround that best suits you!
Do you still use Flash Player? Data Horde is conducting a survey to see how frequently people continue to use Flash Player even at the very end of its lifespan. It would mean a lot to us if you could spare 5-10 minutes to complete a very short survey.
Emulation:
It’s still possible to run Flash Media (.swf files) without actually using Flash Player. Two mature Flash Player emulators are Ruffle (ActionScript 1&2) and Lightspark (ActionScript 3). Ruffle even has an online demo if you’d like to see it in action before installing.
You can find a more thorough list of emulators in the Flash Player Emergency Kit.
Chrome Flags:
If you’re using any version of Google Chrome, up to and including Google Chrome 87, you might not have to install anything at all! You should be able to continue to use an older version of Flash Player which was immune to the effects of the EOL Killswitch.
Simply run Chrome with the --allow-outdated-plugins flag:
Downgraded Firefox:
In addition to the EOL killswitch, Adobe have gone out of their way to remove downloads for previous versions of Flash Player from their website. That being said, there are ways to acquire a past versions of Flash Player, immune to the EOL killswitch.
An out-of-the-box solution is to install Waterfox, a modern fork of Firefox which also supports a lot of legacy features including Flash Player, among other things.
If you would rather stick to a more traditional approach, u/Cifra85 made a Reddit post on how to install a portable Firefox Browser which comes bundled with an older version of Flash Player:
If you’re concerned about incompatibility, another option is Firefox 78 ESR (Extended Support Release) which will continue receiving updates until September of this year.
Modify Configuration File:
Adobe has made it no secret that they intend to offer a killswitch workaround for enterprise customers, via their partner HARMAN, starting February. Leave it to the online Flash community to discover it in January!
Spider, an Adventure Quest fanatic, was one of the first people to discover that all it took was a couple of modifications to a configuration file!
If you’re not on Windows, mms.cfg goes in /Library/Application Support/Macromedia on Mac and /etc/adobe/ on Linux. For more details on mms.cfg see Flash Player 32’s manual (page 41).
Flash Player Projector:
Using the Flash Player projectors, it’s possible to run .swf’s outside of a browser, with some minor limitations. Strangely projectors for Windows, Mac and Linux have not been removed from from Adobe’s website and are still available.
Lightspark For Mac Os
Flash Player projectors can be downloaded from Adobe’s Flashplayer Debug Downloads Section, and mirrors can be found on the Wayback Machine and the Internet Archive.
Alternative Ways of Running Old Versions of Flash:
Lightspark For Macbook Pro
As a final workaround, you can try running an old version of Flash Player outside of a browser. Although there are a number of third-party archives out there, setting these up can be non-trivial.
Instead we would highly recommend Bluemaxima’s Flashpoint, a Flash game/animation Browser of sorts which comes with a built-in older version of Flash Player.
We hope you were able to find a solution that works for you. If you have any comments or suggestions let us know at datahorde@gamingalexandria.com.
Now go on and spread the word! Tell all your friends and family how they can continue to use Flash Player even in 2021!