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March 8, 2017
Answered

Flash Player support period

  • March 8, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 949 views

Dear Adobe developpers,

This forum is the only way I find to try to get answer to my questions.

I read on adobe.com that Flash Player 11.2 for GNU/Linux has got security updates for 5 years from it's original release date (28/03/2012).

That's good news, but I can't find any other "lifetime support" / "end of life" / roadmap information for other major version of Flash Player.

Can you confirm that when Flash Player is upgraded to major version N, the major version N-1 of Flash Player continues to recieve security updates such as 11.2 did during 5 years? And can you tell how long this update period occurs since the Flash Player version release date?

If my extrapolation from Flash Player 11.2 for GNU/Linux is wrong, can you clearly announce that Flash Player developpment is a rolling release so that all major versions N-X are out of date, like it is for Mozilla Firefox?

Thanks in advance,

Best regards,

John Doe

28/03/2012

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer

Well... You didn't answer my questions (have you read my whole message?).

On 2017-03-21, CERT-FR gave the only official answer to my questions:

Adobe Flash Player

Depuis le 11 octobre 2016, la branche Extended Support Release (ESR) a été supprimée et fusionnée avec la branche principale. 

Seule la dernière version d'Adobe Flash Player (24 à la date de parution de cette note) est maintenue par l'éditeur.

That means Adobe Flash Player is related to a kind of rolling release. More clearly, version number is absolutly superfluous from end user client point of view, as long as this number is the last one provided by Adobe. Version number is only usefull for developpers.

Regards.

1 reply

jeromiec83223024
Inspiring
March 10, 2017

We actually started shipping current versions of NPAPI Flash Player for Linux again about a year ago.  Linux is on the same release schedule as all other platforms at this point.  We don't package for all distributions, but we ship a tarball that you can install manually.


You can get current versions here:

http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/

If we don't automatically redirect you to the right version, you can choose manually from the list of available versions here;

Adobe Flash Player Install for all versions

Correct answer
March 28, 2017

Well... You didn't answer my questions (have you read my whole message?).

On 2017-03-21, CERT-FR gave the only official answer to my questions:

Adobe Flash Player

Depuis le 11 octobre 2016, la branche Extended Support Release (ESR) a été supprimée et fusionnée avec la branche principale. 

Seule la dernière version d'Adobe Flash Player (24 à la date de parution de cette note) est maintenue par l'éditeur.

That means Adobe Flash Player is related to a kind of rolling release. More clearly, version number is absolutly superfluous from end user client point of view, as long as this number is the last one provided by Adobe. Version number is only usefull for developpers.

Regards.

jeromiec83223024
Inspiring
March 28, 2017

To answer the other questions more completely:

  • Flash Player releases monthly, in tandem with Microsoft Patch Tuesday. 
  • We follow a continuous delivery model (i.e. rolling release), and the only version that you should be using is the current one.
  • I have no idea what 2022 looks like, so I can't comment on 5 years of anything. 
    If everything goes well, the year 2022 hopefully involves me, a yacht, a strong drink, and a warm sandy beach in the Carribean.