Criticisms
Usage
Due to the increase in the use of Flash in aggressive—and even intrusive—online advertising, tools have emerged that restrict Flash content in some or all websites by temporarily or permanently turning Flash Player off depending on user requirements. Examples of such tools are Flashblock and Adblock Plus for the Mozilla Firefox browser, both of which are commonly used in conjunction with each other to allow users to control what Flash content they see.
"Covered entities under the ADA are required to provide effective communication, regardless of whether they generally communicate through print media, audio media, or computerized media such as the Internet. Covered entities that use the Internet for communications regarding their programs, goods, or services must be prepared to offer those communications through accessible means as well."
Currently, businesses are able to sidestep this mandate to a great degree because the increased cost and complexity associated with providing content to sight-challenged viewers. However, the same argument cannot be made about those with ADHD, since the advertisers are actively interfering with an already accessible website.
Many websites rely on Flash being available by default on a user's web browser and will not check to see if it is available. If Flash is not used, users may be unable to access some Flash-dependent websites or site features. These sites sometimes depend on a fast internet connection, especially a highly complex website or one with music. While it is not impossible to see Flash-based sites with a slower form of internet, such as dial-up, or a slow form of DSL, it may be frustrating for the user. Blocking tools generally do alert the end user to the fact that Flash content is present on the site, allowing the user to view it if they wish.
Using Flash content stores the content of the web page in a binary file and the sections are not static like a web page. Thus, Flash-based content is not easily suitable for indexing by search engines. However, this problem can be alleviated with correct web design.
Like most new technologies that are easy to learn, Flash has often been misused in a way that lacks customer focus. Flash, particularly in its early days, was used to create unusable and inaccessible sites. In recent years the Flash usage has matured and the quality is much higher.
Flash is also popular for creating online games and shows (known as webisodes).
Local Shared Objects
Flash Players from version 6 can store and retrieve persistent data without offering any visible signs to the user—in a manner similar to that of cookies. It is possible to clear the temporary files that Flash stores on your computer either through the Flash website, or by clearing the files manually. The default storage location for LSOs is operating-system dependent. For Windows XP, the location is within each user's Application Data directory, under Macromedia\Flash Player\#SharedObjects. For Mac OS X the location is in each users Library directory under Preferences/Macromedia/Flash Player/#SharedObjects.
Application flaws
Specially crafted files have been shown to cause Flash applications to malfunction, by allowing the execution of malevolent code. The Flash Player has a long history of security flaws that expose computers to remote attacks. However, exploitation of these flaws has remained at the proof-of-concept stage and has not escalated into a real-world problem.
In addition to entries in the Open Source Vulnerability Database, security advisories published in August 2002, December 2002, and November 2005 highlight three examples of reports about various Flash Player versions that allowed remote code execution.
Accessibility issues
Internet users who are visually-impaired, and who may rely on a screen reader, braille display, or using larger text sizes and/or high-contrast color schemes may find sites that make extensive use of Flash difficult or impossible to use.[11] While later versions (Flash Player 6 and onwards) support accessibility functions, site designers may not necessarily design the Flash content with these considerations in mind.
Flash Player on various platforms
The Adobe Flash Player is mainly optimized for the Windows 32 bit platform. There is a 32 bit version for Mac OS X; under Linux, version 7 and version 9 are both available. On other platforms, such as Solaris, there are currently no later releases than version 7. Adobe has been criticized for neglecting to optimize its products on non-Microsoft platforms. This has led to poor web surfing performance on Macintosh and Linux computers, since many websites use Flash animations for menus and advertisements.[12][13] Flash Player 7 for Linux was very CPU hungry in fullscreen mode, resulting in low Frame rates.
Adobe has rewritten the bitmap drawing routines in Flash Player 8 for Mac, using OpenGL planes via Quartz to draw the surfaces. The new drawing code is reported to be actually faster than its Windows counterpart, where JPEG, TIFF or other bitmap images are composited into the animation.
Flash Player 7 for Linux had poor sound support (the sound could lag about a second behind the picture); this issue is reportedly resolved in Flash Player 9. Flash Player 8 was never released for Linux, Adobe stated that they would skip that version and instead focus on preparing Flash Player 9. This decision led to disappointment in the Linux community, with some people feeling that Adobe had abandoned the Linux market. Flash Player 9 for Linux was released in January 2007, providing platform parity once again. This version only supports the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture. In order to get sound output, users of the Open Sound System must either compile and install the abstraction layer flashsupport provided by Adobe, run the Windows Flash Player in a Windows browser through WINE, or alternatively switch to ALSA, which involves upgrading the kernel and possibly the sound card.
Adobe has yet (as of April 2007) to release a Flash Player for the x86-64 architecture on any operating system[14]. There is to date no Linux Flash Player for non-x86 compatible processors (e.g. x86-64 native, PowerPC, ARM, etc.). There were some reports from Adobe employees[citation needed] who said the Flash implementation is very 32-bit specific and porting to 64-bit systems would require a lot of effort. They also said that Adobe will release a 64-bit version as their market turns to 64-bit.[citation needed] Adobe have not yet released any of their development software for any UNIX-like operating system except Mac OS X.
Digital Rights Management
According to a recent article from BBC News, the latest iteration of Flash allows copyright holders to embed ads within videos, as well as control how those videos are used. [15] With this latest piece of software, companies will be able to quickly remove any video that they feel violates copyright and force advertisements to play prior to the start of the video.