In brief: The agonizingly slow demise of Flash has been ongoing for years now, but we're getting close to the finish line. The next company set to kill off Adobe's software is Mozilla, which just confirmed that Firefox 84 would be the last version of its browser to support Flash.
Mozilla was one of many internet giants that in 2017 announced roadmaps detailing plans for killing off Flash. In yesterday's post, it wrote: "On January 26, 2021 when we release Firefox version 85, it will ship without Flash support, improving our performance and security."
Mozilla has been working toward this end goal for a while, having disabled the Flash plugin by default last year. Firefox 84, the final version to support Adobe's software, arrives on December 15, 2020.
There will be no settings for re-enabling Flash in Firefox 85 or future versions, so once it's gone, it's gone for good.
Other companies are putting plans into motion that will see Flash finally consigned to the tech history books. Last month, Microsoft released an optional manual update that removes the app from Windows 10 and stops it from being reinstalled. The Redmond firm also plans to end support for Flash in Internet Explorer 11, the older version of Edge, and Chromium-powered Edge by the end of the year.
Flash was blocked by default in last year's Chrome 76, Google stopped showing Flash content in search results last October, and it is being depreciated from the world's most popular browser in December. Elsewhere, Flash was killed off in Apple's Safari 14, and Facebook removed support a long time ago.