Flash was a useful gadget at one time. Used by everyone to play animation, games, and other multimedia content, it was on almost every Windows PC and many mobile devices.

At some point, unknown persons took it upon themselves to determine whether this ubiquitous chunk of software had any weaknesses. And boy, were they rewarded. Flash has, at times, seemed like a bottomless well of security vulnerabilities. No sooner was one hole closed, than another was revealed.

In hindsight, one wonders whether Adobe could have saved Flash with a major, security-focused rewrite. But that’s not what happened. Instead, Adobe kept up the little Dutch boy act, plugging each hole as it was discovered. During this time, Adobe’s updates to Flash sometimes seemed to create more problems than they solved.

Which brings us to the present. The major web browsers have either already dumped support for Flash, or are in the process of doing so. According to Adobe, Flash is still scheduled for its trip behind the woodshed in 2020. Prior to its final exit, Flash will gradually disappear from most of its remaining hiding places.

What remains of Flash will exist in systems that are not easily updated: A/V and advertising kiosks, PCs in business and industry running old versions of Windows, and a few dying phones.

That just leaves one question: what’s the next piece of software that will drive us crazy with terrible security and endless updates?

Peter Bright is a bit sad about the impending demise of Flash.

Brian Krebs provides some additional details.