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Flash is very much dead, to the point where existing installations are being tombstoned, and microsoft is releasing patches to uninstall it. Any new questions are likely to be about replacing or fooling flash into working, and we're likely to have a significant number of existing questions and answers obsolete.

We have a couple of options, none of which are mutually exclusive

  • Do nothing
  • update the and to reflect the change in support, which we might need to do anyway
  • Have a 'canonical' post covering the end of life, designed to be an optional closure target to be used judiciously

Comments, alternate suggestions and other input is naturally welcome.

While there's no rush, what should we be doing with these tags?

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3 Answers 3

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Flash may be at EOL, but there are surely millions of computers out there that are still using it. One example of software used decades after its EOL is Windows XP, but there are many others. We are still answering today XP posts on SU.

These older setups may encounter problems even today, and there are surely people on SU that have experience with Flash and can answer some questions (I'm one). There exists also much documentation concerning Flash to be found on the internet, and it may stay there (almost) forever.

So I suggest to update the tags, but to let such posts through without closure. At worst, they would get no answers.

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  • EOL systems are definitely a thing, at least until they're old enough for retrocomputing- and there's certain very specific mitigations for them. I certainly feel they're well scoped enough to be answerable, but some of those answers are "hunt down this specific version or older of FOO". That's something I see as being worth preserving. I guess the 'fun' part is how such a previously ubiquitous technology is fairly actively being sunsetted. I don't seem to think MS is pushing a killswitch on older windows versions?
    – Journeyman Geek Mod
    Commented Feb 25, 2021 at 5:42
  • AFAIK Microsoft is not killing Flash on older systems.
    – harrymc
    Commented Feb 25, 2021 at 14:49
  • Flash wasn’t built into Windows 7 (out of support) was built into Windows 8.1 IE but that’s also out of support, in both cases Adobe pushed the kill button.
    – Ramhound
    Commented Mar 2, 2021 at 4:42
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I propose we do nothing to the content. To the tag itself, we could add a note about Flash reaching EOL and add in reference to alternate implementations (like Ruffle).

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A canonical question is definitely going to be beneficial in the long run.

While Adobe Flash is dead, there's a constant need for it[1]. There are also remediations like Ruffle that could revive some Flash games and applications. This is a compelling signal that there will be questions on this topic in the future, be it in one form or another.

Updating tag info and tag excerpts are obviously required and better performed sooner than later.

* 1. As Adobe Flash stops running, so do some railroads in China - Apple Daily

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