Google Chrome 88 removes Flash and FTP support

[HEXUS]

And it ushers in Dark Mode improvements in Windows and Chrome OS versions.

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[cheesemp]

Flash should have rightly died a death a long time ago however I was surprised to find a site running old flash games under ruffle (https://ruffle.rs/) the other day. Its a complete emulation layer written in rust!

Not so sure on completely disabling of FTP/HTTP downloads as it still has its place. Why can't it be available as a hidden option?

It'll be interesting to see if Microsoft mirror these changes in Edge (my current choice).

[Kato-2]

Use Brave instead, free from Google's data tracking.

https://brave.com/download/

[jimbouk]

Update 88 also brings about the beginning of the end for meaningful ad blocking with the introduction of Manifest v3. You win some you lose some.

[MLyons]

A lot of people are uneasy with brave because like Google they are ultimately an advertising company. That's how they plan to make money in the long term.

Despite their young age they also have been caught doing things that are questionable at best, but in my opinion just unethical. One thing was that they whitelisted Facebook (!) without disclosing it or warning users about it. Somebody has to discover it in the code. They did that in order to not break websites for casual users, but that really doesn't explain why they forgot to document that for advanced users. I wouldn't trust brave shield after that.

Another thing is that they use content creators to promote their BAT rewards system, even without the creators knowledge. Brave gave users the impression they could give to creators just by visiting their website. But if the creator isn't verified with brave the BAT the user meant to send them are set aside for some time (90 days I believe, maybe shorter), there is no(!) attempt made to try and notify the creator to verify themselves so they can access the BAT, and after the time is up the money (BAT) goes back to the brave folks, without notifying the user.

Tom Scott discovered that and after it became public brave promised to create an op-out. Not opt-in, opt-out. And that only after their practices were uncovered. Brendan Eich openly stated that opt-in would be bad for their growth, and that's obviously more important than not deceiving user or using unsuspecting content creators.

So now they say that's brave ads are opt-in and all ad-targeting will be done offline. But you'll have to forgive if I'm a bit sceptical about the future development. Who says they aren't going to again make undocumented changes to make it easier for casual users or do something that's legal but unethical to support their own growth?

And even if I didn't had those concerns. Google absolutely and completely controls Chromium. Sure, brave can strip out some trackers and services by Google, but the don't want to fundamentally change Chromium (otherwise they would not use it).

[badass]

Not so sure on completely disabling of FTP/HTTP downloads as it still has its place. Why can't it be available as a hidden option?

Specifically about the downloading from FTP (rather than HTTP) - it NEVER had its place. FTP always was and always will be a completely broken protocol that has needed to die for a very, very long time. Like since it was created

[jimbouk]

What good browser options are there these days? Is Firefox competitive again after the years of bloat? Dare I say edge for Chromium thoroughly de-googled?

[philehidiot]

What good browser options are there these days? Is Firefox competitive again after the years of bloat? Dare I say edge for Chromium thoroughly de-googled?

I use Firefox. I don't think it's too bad at all and there's a decent array of addons. I don't particularly like their politicisation of the browser and open "we're going to use our presence on the internet to change people's wrongthink". But you can turn it off. Just don't store your passwords using their password manager as even iteration gets broken very quickly. A third party (open sauce) password manager is a good idea as it fouls up keyloggers.

I do not like this over-simplification of the internet. I like Flash. With it gone, I can't now access other people's insecure weather stations and some camera systems are borked. These systems are old but still functional. Manufacturers are not going to update their software but I hope they have produced workaround guides for their users.

FTP is not going to die and removing it from the consumer end isn't going to help anything, is it? It needs to be addressed at a completely different layer in the OSI cake. Or am I missing something?

As for removing HTTP entirely, meh. Just put up a warning - a big one. I use HTTPS Everywhere anyway but HTTPS is also possible to bypass (unless HSTS is in use). Much like FTP I want to be allowed to do anything that the internet is capable of doing. This is limiting the browser to sanitise and hide away vulnerabilities. I don't think it'll ever get rid of them unless people start disabling services and blocking ports they don't need.

Businesses who use FTP will just use a separate program (rather than pay to change over to anything more secure and will possible even go so far as to use vulnerable software to do it) and the vulnerability will still be there as the service will still be working server-side. All I see that doing is making it harder for someone to accidentally stumble upon an open FTP service whereas the evil doers will still just use the tools they are already using. Or am I being an idiot?

Maybe Google has tried working with the various stakeholders and has found the only way to effect change is brute force and using their monopoly. The irony is that, whilst they make people more secure with one arm of the business, they're busy effectively spying with the other arm.

[Bambooz]

What good browser options are there these days?

Vivaldi maybe? From the ex-Opera team. Firesucks blew all chances they've had. Completely irrelevant at this point, especially for anything approaching a poweruser. The mentally challenged lunatics behind the whole thing don't help either

[jimbouk]

Vivaldi maybe? From the ex-Opera team. Firesucks blew all chances they've had. Completely irrelevant at this point, especially for anything approaching a poweruser. The mentally challenged lunatics behind the whole thing don't help either

I can't help but get the feeling you're not a fan Not sure what gave it away...

Have Brave installed and it's very much the same and Chrome with uBlock Origin (as to be expected). Maybe have another shop around, need to think about mobile as well really. It's so easy just to be lazy with these things. Kick myself every time I have to input a secure password on PS4 which LastPass has generated for me

[PlusNomad]

I miss pre chromium opera. But even now, its still good.