Flash is dying. Flash for Android has also been discontinued and removed from the Play Store, Apple refused to allow Flash for iOS.

Youtube works fine without Flash. The only reason I still have Flash installed is for BBC Iplayer radio.

Yeah I stopped using flash a while back and like many others have shelved the software..
But I do not understand how to watch videos on utube
they are not flv ?
They play fast and no sound ..

Graeme - When upgrading their "iplayer" and general online viewing BBC made a serious error in opting for flash. I download BBC programs using get_iplayer using lists downloaded to RSS tool Akregator. The downloader converts the files to MP4 / MP4a. To simplify use of get_iplayer I ran up a short bash script. Four or five keystrokes in terminal and all done! :)

But I agree, flash is a real pain and has been for a long time. My brother's linux Mint installation lost it some time ago across the whole machine and we still cannot get it to work.

Flash 11.2 for linux has been around for some time now. The notice about not issuing newer versions was first put up a couple of years ago, I think. Although the version is still 11.2 there have been a few "bug fixes" in that time, pushing the incremental number up to 11.2.202.327 (at last firefox reload).

Given the number of flaws and exploits found each year in adobe products it would be a big step forward if we could all say goodbye to it.

I installed gnash some time back but it failed to work on many flash files: too out of date. And sadly blocked use of flash itself so had to be dumped and flash re-installed. Which is another pain! Very difficult to fully install properly.

pp46 - I see no decline in open-source products. I'm forced to use windows as a web/mail server but prefer to use linux for everything else. I usually find free tools for both.

@pp46, [youtube.com...]

I think it may go to HTML5 video automatically if you do not have Flash installed.

@dstiles. Agreed. Good summary.

I will give get_iplayer another try. It did not work for me last time - but that was years ago.

get_iplayer works on Mint for all BBC TV and radio but the commercial channels caused so many problems they were dropped.

get_iplayer can be added to the repository to do auto-updates.

If anyone wants my bash script get in touch via WebmasterWorld mail.

I assume any reasonable browser can cope with HTML5 - can't say I've ever noticed it but there again it's not something one would notice, I suppose. :)

You have to sign up for HTML5 video on youtube. It's in the settings somewhere.

@dstiles The only browser that struggles with HTML5 video is IE, of course. Any other browser does fine but IE needs special handling to get it to play videos any other browser has no problems with. That's why many use YouTube or Vimeo instead of just serving video directly.

My little company solved the problem but none of our sites have video on them right now except for those who still have YouTube or Vimeo.