Safari 10 will prefer HTML5, require manual activations of plugins like Flash & Java

Posted:
in Mac Software
Continuing Apple's deprication of third-party plugins, Safari 10 -- bundled with macOS Sierra -- will by default require users to manually activate Flash, Java, Silverlight, or QuickTime to use one of them on a website.




The upcoming version of Safari will prefer HTML5, and no longer tell sites that the plugins are installed, said Safari developer Ricky Mondello in a post on the official WebKit blog. The browser has no built-in exception list, and so people will have to enable plugins on a per-site basis.

If a site element is requesting Flash, it will initially claim that the plugin isn't installed and display an Adobe download link. In Safari 10, clicking on this link will let users know that the plugin actually is on their system, and ask whether they want to activate it once, everytime they visit, or cancel.

With other plugins, people will see content placeholders on a site with some form of "click to use" button. Selecting these will present options similar to Flash.

Once authorization is given, Safari will continue to use plugins on a website until it hasn't seen them plugins used there for "a little over a month," Mondello noted.

The developer added that betas of Safari 10 for OS X Yosemite and El Capitan will be available later this summer.

Apple's decision is said to be driven by efforts to improve security, performance, and battery life. Security in particular has been a recurring reason for the company to distance itself from plugins, since Flash and Java can be favorite vectors for malware.
lolliver
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 30
    baconstangbaconstang Posts: 1,103member
    Sooooo, I guess I won't be needing Click2Flash any longer?
  • Reply 2 of 30
    mcarlingmcarling Posts: 1,106member
    This is the best reason I've seen to upgrade to Sierra.  I so look forward to an Internet without Flash.
    lolliverBobbydig
  • Reply 3 of 30
    lowededwookielowededwookie Posts: 1,143member
    mcarling said:
    This is the best reason I've seen to upgrade to Sierra.  I so look forward to an Internet without Flash.
    It's not just going to be for Sierra.
  • Reply 4 of 30
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    Flash and Java just won't die, will they? Life support, yes, but still not in the grave yet. It's amazing that those are still profitable (assuming Adobe and Oracle aren't taking a loss on them yet supporting them).
  • Reply 5 of 30
    mcarling said:
    This is the best reason I've seen to upgrade to Sierra.  I so look forward to an Internet without Flash.
    It's not just going to be for Sierra.
    I was glad to see they're developing for El Capitan still. My 2009 MBP still has life!
    Bobbydig
  • Reply 6 of 30
    lorin schultzlorin schultz Posts: 2,771member
    Netflix uses Silverlight. I hope this development doesn't mean I have to constantly "re-activate" it.
    mwhite
  • Reply 7 of 30
    macxpressmacxpress Posts: 5,801member
    Netflix uses Silverlight. I hope this development doesn't mean I have to constantly "re-activate" it.

    People still use Netflix????
    mcarlingbaconstang
  • Reply 8 of 30
    mwhitemwhite Posts: 287member
    Netflix uses Silverlight. I hope this development doesn't mean I have to constantly "re-activate" it.
    You don't need to activate it every time you can tell it for Netflix to activate it every time you go to Netflix.
  • Reply 9 of 30
    bigdobigdo Posts: 19member
    Netflix uses Silverlight. I hope this development doesn't mean I have to constantly "re-activate" it.
    If you have a 2011 or newer Mac and OS X 10.10 or newer you don't need Silverlight for Netflix. Netflix will use HTML5 instead.
    lolliver
  • Reply 10 of 30
    lorin schultzlorin schultz Posts: 2,771member
    bigdo said:
    If you have a 2011 or newer Mac and OS X 10.10 or newer you don't need Silverlight for Netflix. Netflix will use HTML5 instead.
    Cool. Thanks for the tip! Any idea what changed in 2011 that eliminated the need for Silverlight?
  • Reply 11 of 30
    loquiturloquitur Posts: 137member
    bigdo said:
    Cool. Thanks for the tip! Any idea what changed in 2011 that eliminated the need for Silverlight?
    That's about when you could be sure that all Macs could do hardware/GPU-assisted H.264 decoding, ala https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/technotes/tn2267/_index.html
  • Reply 12 of 30
    Some sites prefer Flash with Safari, although will show HTML5 video if it thinks you're on an iPad


  • Reply 13 of 30
    9secondkox29secondkox2 Posts: 2,663member
    macxpress said:
    Netflix uses Silverlight. I hope this development doesn't mean I have to constantly "re-activate" it.

    People still use Netflix????
    Voltron!
  • Reply 14 of 30
    copelandcopeland Posts: 298member
    Can I tell then Safari to not show any ads?
  • Reply 15 of 30
    Is it an evergreen browser yet? ONLY Safari is still working in dinosaur mode. Literally every other major browser updates in the background. 
  • Reply 16 of 30
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,309moderator
    bigdo said:
    Cool. Thanks for the tip! Any idea what changed in 2011 that eliminated the need for Silverlight?
    It was the addition of encryption (DRM) to HTML5 that allows streaming providers to protect their content:

    http://techblog.netflix.com/2013/04/html5-video-at-netflix.html

    If they just switched to unencrypted HTML5 video, people would be able to download the stream and share it. This was one of the main reasons people used Flash for video too as people couldn't easily download the video from an ad-based blog and upload it to Youtube.

    Another reason for the use of plugins is how much of the target audience supports the ability to decode the stream. People don't all get the latest browser standards as soon as they come out so the plugins need to be used in the mean-time. Youtube started widespread adoption of Flash. Before Flash, online videos were in all sorts of formats like Windows Media Formats, RealPlayer, AVI, Quicktime. Flash adoption went above 90% of the internet's computers so content producers kept using it.

    Better HTML standards, larger audience on modern browsers, plugin security vulnerabilities, mobile devices, hardware acceleration are all helping drive the move towards native rich content support.
  • Reply 17 of 30
    appexappex Posts: 687member
    Get rid of obnoxious Adobe Flash. Random kernel panics on Mac mini.
  • Reply 18 of 30
    command_fcommand_f Posts: 421member
    So is 'deprication' a US spelling or is it a description of Safari with Flash removed? We spell it with an 'e' over here but greatly approve of de-flashification.
  • Reply 19 of 30
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,035member
    command_f said:
    So is 'deprication' a US spelling or is it a description of Safari with Flash removed? We spell it with an 'e' over here but greatly approve of de-flashification.
    It's not a US spelling of deprecation but rather the author's version while probably ignoring the spell checker.
  • Reply 20 of 30
    rob53rob53 Posts: 3,241member
    Marvin said:
    Cool. Thanks for the tip! Any idea what changed in 2011 that eliminated the need for Silverlight?
    It was the addition of encryption (DRM) to HTML5 that allows streaming providers to protect their content:

    http://techblog.netflix.com/2013/04/html5-video-at-netflix.html

    If they just switched to unencrypted HTML5 video, people would be able to download the stream and share it. This was one of the main reasons people used Flash for video too as people couldn't easily download the video from an ad-based blog and upload it to Youtube.

    Another reason for the use of plugins is how much of the target audience supports the ability to decode the stream. People don't all get the latest browser standards as soon as they come out so the plugins need to be used in the mean-time. Youtube started widespread adoption of Flash. Before Flash, online videos were in all sorts of formats like Windows Media Formats, RealPlayer, AVI, Quicktime. Flash adoption went above 90% of the internet's computers so content producers kept using it.

    Better HTML standards, larger audience on modern browsers, plugin security vulnerabilities, mobile devices, hardware acceleration are all helping drive the move towards native rich content support.
    Netflix still requires a "newer" Mac in order to allow the use of HTML5. My 2009 iMac doesn't qualify but my 2011 MBP does so I only watch Netflix using HTML5 on the laptop. My iMac is plenty powerful enough but I believe it also has something to do with either the CPU or GPU type having some specific hardware function that works with the DRM.
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