Mozilla to ditch Adobe Flash

Adobe’s ubiquitous but oft-targeted Flash Player is about to lose support from yet another Internet entity - Mozilla’s popular open-source Firefox browser.

 

Mozilla is now experimenting with Project Shumway, a new technology that plays Flash content minus Adobe’s Flash Player plug-in.

 

In its wiki, Mozilla said Shumway for now is for those “interested in a Flash Player Alternative and want to provide feedback.”

 

Due to its widespread use, Flash Player has been targeted by malware authors as a vehicle for infecting computers and mobile devices - or slowed down a device by eating up resources.

 

Apple has effectively banned Flash from its iPhone, while Google’s Android has for the most part kept Flash off by default for its phones and tablets.

 

YouTube also moving away from Flash by supporting other formats - and moving to HTML5 as the default video format.

 

Limited run

 

But for now, CNET quoted Mozilla programmer Chris Peterson as saying Shumway is still limited to playing Flash videos on Amazon.com.

 

Why Shumway?

 

As to why the project is named Shumway, fans of the 1980s TV series ALF would be glad to know it is a hat tip to them.

 

CNET cited a tweet by Peterson indicating the project’s name came from Flash Gordon and Gordon Shumway, the real name of the alien TV character.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p><a href="https://twitter.com/joemccann">@joemccann</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/BrendanEich">@BrendanEich</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/tobytailor">@tobytailor</a> Flash → Flash Gordon → Gordon Shumway (the actual name of the TV character ALF :)</p>&mdash; CHRIS PETERSON (@cpeterso) <a href="https://twitter.com/cpeterso/status/566143951053144064">February 13, 2015</a></blockquote>

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— Joel Locsin/TJD, GMA News