We're still not to a point where we have the same capabilities Flash packaged together, and even if we were, we don't have the easy authorship tools to match.
Flash let you deploy a single file. That's unthinkably easy. No hoops. No transpiler builds. Everything about it was so simple.
The switch from a web where everyone publishes to a web where Facebook and YouTube dominate also helped kill it. I'm convinced Flash was ahead of its time and because corporations couldn't bank off of it, we murdered it.
The game stuff was truly neat. But flash was also used for tons of things like bank websites or other government stuff, employment stuff or even credit card payment system. Flash never worked well on anything but windows on x86 (32 bits). And it often burned CPU (and battery life) like nobody's business. Many ads in flash would just burn your CPU. It also had tons of security issues.
I remember being on Linux x86_64 and I couldn't load flash websited I had to use for some legal documents and feeling stuck.
So as much as the flash games aspect was neat. When flash died suddenly the web was more interoperable. Nowadays I never need to worry that I need Microsoft Windows on a specific hardware to navigate the web.
Different times though. In those days, Linux was seen as an hacker OS and the likes of Ubuntu were niche and nerdy. Those who use Linux today if lived in that time, I'd wager a large majority would of been running Windows. Windows x64 wasn't even a thing in mainstream.
Flash was in Adobe hands and when the Linux plugin arrived, Adobe could of pushed development. Patched the exploits, however it felt like days after the purchase they had started nailing the coffin shut.
It wasn't until Linux threatened the Windows OS later on that development for Linux really took off and corporations took Linux more seriously; long after Flash's coffin was nailed tightly shut. "Flash didn't work on Linux" was because Linux wasn't a usable desktop unlike to what it is now. When Flash was a thing, you still needed to configure X, lucky to have sound, and even then required configuring your screen, mouse and keyboard manually. I'm, not sure that NVIDIA linux drivers were even a thing then.
I would be starting to worry because with the recent antics with Microsoft and Windows 11, they don't want you to install any other OS. They want you to use WSL and that, I wouldn't trust with a toothpick. How long until you require a "WSL license"?
Firefox is tearing at the seams and soon we will see the web dominated with chrome only websites. Heck, it's already happening.
We're still not to a point where we have the same capabilities Flash packaged together, and even if we were, we don't have the easy authorship tools to match.
Flash let you deploy a single file. That's unthinkably easy. No hoops. No transpiler builds. Everything about it was so simple.
The switch from a web where everyone publishes to a web where Facebook and YouTube dominate also helped kill it. I'm convinced Flash was ahead of its time and because corporations couldn't bank off of it, we murdered it.
Flash was amazing and we threw it away.