What was it good for?

Flash was officially abandoned by Adobe in 2015, and on December 31, 2020, it died.

But why did it last so long?

man waving and enjoying the sunset next to the sea

Westend61 / Getty Images

Was there anything good about it?

If you were a developer, then yes.

“At first I hated it,” long-time Flash developerGerrit DijkstratoldLifewirevia direct message.

Screenshot of Adobe’s Flash end of life page and information

“Then [Adobe] bought Macromedia, and they added scripting to Flash.

What Was Flash?

It didnt matter if you used Safari, Internet Explorer, Firefox, or Chrome.

But back then, Flash was a way to ensure the experience would be the same everywhere.

The problem was the experience, though.

And all the while, it drained your laptops battery faster.

Flash also wasnt a native experience.

On the Mac, it didnt look or behave anything like other Mac software.

And this is the clue to Flashs success.

Users dont care how stuff works.

Developers, on the other hand, love Electron, and loved Flash.

Flash Developers

To start with, Flash was easy.

And it was a lot more like play than work.

At the same time, this power made Flash indispensable.

And then along came the iPhone.

Jobs angle was that these cross-platform apps would be slow to adopt new technologies.

And he had a point.

Not that anyone really uses it anymore anyway.

It seems like the right thing to do.