Did you hear that? It’s Adobe Flash’s last breath, which may finally become obsolete with the release of Mozilla Firefox 85 on Tuesday.
Until now, Firefox had been the last of the old guard to support Flash. Apple first despised the software in 2010, banning it from iPhones and again in 2020, refusing to support it with Safari 14, and Google and Microsoft discarded it earlier this year with the releases of Chrome version 88 and Edge 88, respectively. Although the software was one of the pioneers in games, video and animation on the web, Adobe had previously announced a long-term strategy to stop Flash Player updates and distribution, encouraging creators to migrate any trusted content to the most modern open formats.
In addition to some notable omissions, Firefox 85 has also added some interesting new features, including network partitioning which works to protect users from supercookie tracking by dividing the browser cache by site.
“Over the years, trackers have been found storing user identifiers as supercookies in increasingly obscure parts of the browser, including Flash storage, ETagsand HSTS flags, ”wrote Mozilla on a blog. “The changes we’re making to Firefox 85 greatly reduce the effectiveness of cache-based supercookies, eliminating a crawler’s ability to use them on websites.
Other major additions include changes to how bookmarked pages are stored in the browser and an option to remove all saved credentials clicking on a single button, which can make life easier for users who share a computer or need to clear their browser for privacy reasons.
G / O Media can receive a commission