Yes, using unmaintained software is bad for security. However, the alternative of forcing people to use third party sources—which will all be somewhat shady, since Flash is technically under copyright—is even worse for security! Now, you might be downloading a fake, malicious copy of Adobe Flash! God knows there are enough of those already in circulation...
Put it up on a public company archive server somewhere. I really like what Panic does, all software vendors should have something similar: https://download.panic.com
I do think it would be cool for them to keep offering downloads of the installer. Adobe should be proud of shockwave and show that pride by keeping the installer out there.
But how can you be sure these are legitimate copies of Shockwave and/or Flash?
Confusing, yes, as Flash was sometimes labeled as Shockwave Flash.
In addition, everything I said applies to Shockwave as well, albeit to a lesser extent.
(Also, what the heck is with that confusing name? It made troubleshooting a Shockwave issue quite annoying a couple years back, because all my searches for "Shockwave" turned up results related to "Shockwave Flash".)
I always just figured they dropped it like they did Freehand after they bought Macromedia for Flash.
Not Macromedia – “MacroMind"?!
I had never even heard the name MacroMind until I looked it up just now, to learn it existed until its 1992 merger with Authorware, when it became the vastly better-known Macromedia. How on earth did the writer of this article accidentally use the name of Macromedia's obscure predecessor?
I do still miss the ease of use fo flash though.
Wish someone would make something this simple outputting web standards.
Flash let a whole bunch of creative people make interactive experiments and websites that they just don't have the technical skills to do now you need to use a more formal setup.
Flash sucked for many reasons, but for this it was excellent and hasn't been replaced.
With browsers now 'evergreen' and auto-updating I am not sure about this complete disconnect with allegedly bad web pages of the past. Having to dig out a ten year old PC running 'Vista' to view a Flash based website of yesteryear is far from accessible. I wonder how people in the archive business view this. HTML is essentially backwards compatible although I think the blink tag has finally gone from Firefox. Flash deserves a legacy final edition that grownups can use to show stuff to their grandchildren in decades to come.
That downloads page takes me back a bit. I remember that time when I would boot into Windows and there would always be a pop up saying there was an update to Flash for me. It was one of the more reliable surprises in the universe, even if ignored by everyone you could at least rely on the Flash installer to be wanting your attention with that familiar download page there for you, just waiting to keep you safe on your adventures online.
