LibreOffice 7.0 Finally Retiring Its Adobe Flash Export Support

[Teggs]

I remember when Flash was the #1 attack vector to Windows XP, followed closely by Java. Fun times. Not. Then there was the fact that it was unperformant for anything but the simplest uses... only people would keep using it where they shouldn't. But Flash isn't dead. Oh no. Even recently, Star Citizen was using Scaleform in their UI, and the latest Battletech game had it in every single screen in the entire game. (See also: How to stress test your customers' graphics hardware! A presentation by Adobe Inc.)

It's a shame that Flash had so many problems, and people using it stupidly, but that's the way it is, and that's why Flash needs to die in a fire.

[angrypie]

I remember when Flash was the #1 attack vector to Windows XP, followed closely by Java.

ActiveX was worse I guess? Flash was 2nd or 3rd place, depending if you take Internet Explorer into account.

[kpedersen]

Because of the Unity player plugin thing? Not likely to relevant concern moving forward with WASM.

It is true that the open-source Emscripten project has really saved Unity's bacon there.

I more mean the tooling and ethos of the company. Once they no longer make so much money, they will just close up shop with no consideration for existing solutions relying on future maintenance. Yes, you might argue that is most companies; and you would be right. I would never tie down the success of my project to a commercial prosumer product.

Never trust a development tool that has DRM. It means they are not serious when it comes to providing you with a long term solution. To be fair to Unity, they don't need to worry about long term solutions because their target market is amateurs who don't have long running projects. Unfortunately middle management sometimes get confused and try to push Unity into professional projects where it doesn't belong.

[polarathene]

To be fair to Unity, they don't need to worry about long term solutions because their target market is amateurs who don't have long running projects. Unfortunately middle management sometimes get confused and try to push Unity into professional projects where it doesn't belong.

What would you suggest instead of Unity? UnrealEngine4? That's open-source iirc(or at least a good portion of it?), but is focused on C++ dev(or blueprints UI), whereas Unity with C# would have a wider reach and probably isn't all that bad(I'd rather C# over C++ personally, not that I'm a fan of C#).

[Teggs]

ActiveX was worse I guess? Flash was 2nd or 3rd place, depending if you take Internet Explorer into account.

It's a Rogue's Gallery. Three of the four were hung, though Flash is still twitching on the end of the rope. Java got off because it has good lawyers, I guess. Windows XP itself was never charged, because it 'knew people'.

[kpedersen]

What would you suggest instead of Unity? UnrealEngine4? That's open-source iirc(or at least a good portion of it?), but is focused on C++ dev(or blueprints UI), whereas Unity with C# would have a wider reach and probably isn't all that bad(I'd rather C# over C++ personally, not that I'm a fan of C#).

There are many open-source solutions. If you are an indie / hobbiest, then Godot for 3D, Cordova for 2D, etc.
If you are looking to invest time and make games in a more serious manner, then C++ is crucial for portability and interacting with middleware anyway.
UE4 is "source available". Not entirely open-source so it costs (like Unity) but has guaranteed lifespan because you can maintain the engine yourself and compile it to run on i.e newer versions of Windows once Unity has long gone bankrupt.

Though, my best advice is try to learn to love C++. It is the only one that is truely here to stay and gives you such a greater access to innovative libraries. It seems silly to restrict yourself to toy languages just because they are "more fun".