
Adobe to Discontinue Shockwave on April 9th - endofcapital
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/adobe-sends-emails-about-retirement-of-shockwave-on-april-9th/
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Wowfunhappy
They really shouldn't make Flash completely unavailable to download. They're
cutting off a lot of legacy content with cultural significance.

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](https://download.panic.com)

~~~
TheOperator
It really doesn't matter insofar that the internet is going to keep copies of
shockwave installers for decades long after adobe would ever realistically
keep offering downloads.

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.

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Wowfunhappy
> the internet is going to keep copies of shockwave installers for decades
> long after adobe would ever realistically keep offering downloads.

But how can you be sure these are legitimate copies of Shockwave and/or Flash?

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bpye
Even if archive.org wasn't willing to host the installers because of
copyright, they could list known good hashes couldn't they?

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Wowfunhappy
Sure, and that would be a legitimately great service.

But, many people do you think are going to go and check the hash beforehand?
How many people even know _how_ to check the hash? Admittedly, the type of
user who will go through so much effort to run old Flash content probably
skews more technical, but the point remains.

The alternative is that Adobe could just leave the downloads links up under a
giant "Not Supported Don't Use" banner. I know which option I'd find more
responsible.

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egypturnash
Holy crap, they were still updating Director as late as ~2016? I don't think
I've heard anyone talk about using it since like 2000. Feels super weird to
see "Adobe Director".

I always just figured they dropped it like they did Freehand after they bought
Macromedia for Flash.

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godzillabrennus
Still hurts that they killed Fireworks. Best photo editor ever for quick web
ready edits.

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propelol
The Sketch before Sketch

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godzillabrennus
Yep. Except sketch still isn’t up to delivering the same level of usability
that fireworks had.

Not to mention it was bundled in Creative Suite.

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mortenjorck
_> Released in 1995 by Macromind, Shockwave brought interactive content and
games to the web in a way that was never seen before. In 2005, Adobe purchased
Macromind and all of their interactive web products such as Flash and
Shockwave continued under the Adobe name._

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?

~~~
tomysshadow
Probably because Director was originally created under a different name,
VideoWorks, which WAS released by MacroMind before they eventually became
Macromedia.

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jonplackett
Can't believe they're still updating it.

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.

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Wowfunhappy
Adobe Animate is basically a rebranded version of Flash, and it can export
html5. I don't know how complete/compatible the export option is, but I know
we've used it at my company for a small project.

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nosamu
Note that this announcement is about Shockwave, not Flash. Here is an article
about the difference between the two: [https://medium.com/@nosamu/the-
difference-between-flash-and-...](https://medium.com/@nosamu/the-difference-
between-flash-and-shockwave-b27609808a02) While Shockwave Player will be
discontinued on April 9, Flash Player will be discontinued at the end of 2020:
[https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-
update/](https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/)

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ydnaclementine
I think I remember playing games and watching videos ~2001 on shockwave.com.
Shockwave powered a lot of web games for a long time

~~~
tobr
I have very fond, if somewhat hazy, memories of shockwave.com too. For some
reason, I have much warmer feelings for the Shockwave brand than Flash, which
I mostly think of as a resource hogging nuisance.

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Animats
I liked Shockwave for the year or two it had the Havok physics engine. But
Macromedia didn't keep up the payments and had to take it out.

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Theodores
A decade ago people were able to put together very impressive things in Flash.
I was never wanting to take that route however that content still deserves to
be viewable by future generations. Sure the Flash viewer might open your
computer to hackers but if I wanted to see what my music mad workmate was
trying to impress me with a decade ago then it would be nice to be able to
risk my computer viewing it.

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.

~~~
Wowfunhappy
Adobe has a standalone program called Flash Projector that can load swf files.
That's what I'd generally recommend for viewing Flash content, though you do
need to isolate and save any swf files beforehand.

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Theodores
They even have a linux 64 bit version! That is great news.

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.

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tomysshadow
Note that Shockwave installers will also stop working after that point, as
even the "full" installer downloads components from the web during the
install.

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DEADBEEFC0FFEE
I wonder if Unity and Electron will be the Shockwave of tomorrow.

