Adobe is going to stop distributing and updating Flash player and the Shockwave player. That's ok.
However Flash along with its sister project Shockwave is an important piece of Internet history and killing Flash and Shockwave means future generations can't access the past. Games, experiments and websites would be forgotten.
Open sourcing Flash and the Shockwave spec would be a good solution to keep Flash and Shockwave projects alive safely for archive reasons. Don't know how, but that's the beauty of open source: you never know what will come up after you go open source! There might be a way to convert swf/fla/drc/dir to HTML5/canvas/webgl/webassembly, or some might write a standalone player for it. Another possibility would be to have a separate browser. We're not saying Flash and Shockwave player should be preserved as is.
We understand that there can be licensed components you might not be able to release. Simply leave them out with a note explaining what was removed. We will either bypass them, or replace them with open source alternatives.
Star this repository to sign the petition. Pull requests are also welcome. Add cool Flash and Shockwave links here and reasons to open source Flash and Shockwave.
This petition will be delivered to Adobe.
♥ Contributors and signers
- Petition discussion on HN
- Should Adobe Open Source Flash
- Flash 2020 and the Future - Newgrounds
- https://twitter.com/bit101/status/889911479104933889
- https://twitter.com/fwa/status/889957817330917377
- https://twitter.com/TomFulp/status/889883079137005570
- https://twitter.com/tha_rami/status/890051049259663361
- Gizmodo article
- Petition discussion on Linux Subreddit
- Infoworld article
- SD Times article
- MakeUseOf article
- http://webwereld.nl/software/100140-maak-flash-open-source
- http://mobil.derstandard.at/2000061874513/Open-Source-Petition-Fans-wollen-Flash-weiterleben-lassen
- https://www.heise.de/amp/meldung/Petition-Flash-als-Open-Source-Rentner-3786837.html
- http://www.chip.pl/2017/07/adobe-flash-jako-open-source/
- http://www.oschina.net/news/87212/petition-to-open-source-flash-spec
- http://4pda.ru/2017/07/27/345658/
- https://www.xataka.com/aplicaciones/deberia-convertirse-adobe-flash-en-open-source-tres-razones-a-favor-y-tres-en-contra
- http://news.softpedia.com/news/adobe-should-open-source-flash-player-petition-requires-517227.shtml
- mozilla/shumway#2438
- https://twitter.com/pakastin/status/892042787771879424
- FWA - Flash... Don't Dance on your Dad's grave
- Wikipedia: Web Archiving
- Adobe open source
- Another petition
Flash and Shockwave was a platform for creative expression in an exciting new medium with global reach at a time when sound and moving images were barely breaking into the internet. Many artists took the media and shaped it to their own style. These digital pieces were both mesmerizing and disturbing.
We do lots to save and restore old manuscripts so, why not consider any interactive artworks that were developed on this platform and can't be ported truthfully to just a video format.
Feel free to add other interactive art projects, websites, games and experiments that you think deserve to be saved:
- 25 Most Impressive Flash Sites
- Flyguy
- Hoogerbrugge
- sofake
- WEFAIL
- dontclick.it
- Levitated
- Flixel
- Video of eye4u.com flash intro
- Video of 2Advanced - Expansions
- Video of Who's We Studios
- Video of Xiao Xiao
- Metal Gear Awesome
- Homestar Runner
- Tales for the L33T: Romeo and Juliet, by Chris Coutts.
- Homestuck BETA
- I Wish I Were the Moon
- Cursor*10
- Clock2D.com - Alarm clock radio with themes, fullscreen, countdown, and sharing features.
- Madness Combat Series
- DICEWARS
- Chat Noir (trap the cat)
- The GROW games by EYEZMAZE
- Club Penguin Rewritten
- Full Fist: DeepFriedFunny.com
- Realm of the Mad God
- Amanita Design Games
- Beautifl - Flash Gallery of wonderfl
- Flashmixer
- Defend the wicket
- Biomediaproject - Archive of all bionicle promotional material like Mata Nui Online Game and also has huge archive of old lego flash and shockwave games.
There's already some projects to preserve Flash. The problem is that they're not complete, because of the closed source of Flash spec:
Projects that don't preserve Flash as such but provide knowledge about the file format: