people that romanticize Flash are selectively remembering the cool uses such as Newgrounds and Homestar Runner. They are forgetting Flash ads, which were stuffed on a page to the point they would crash your browser. Or the constant fun of hunt-the-talking-banner. You could always tell when you landed on one of these pages by how fast your CPU fans started spinning. If your PC sounds like a jet engine, you're on a heavy Flash site and should close your browser ASAP.
It’s not just about AlbinoBlacksheep and NewGrounds. Flash was the most consequential technology on the web’s frontend prior to and even after html5. It was enabled on a staggering 98% of web browsers. So much so it was basically synonymous with web browsing. You can trace the trail of flash to the invention and adoption of social media. There would be no MySpace, no YouTube and Meebo. The internet would have had a completely different story.
> If your PC sounds like a jet engine, you're on a heavy Flash site and should close your browser ASAP.
There is a duolingo page that manages to kill my computer to death if I am not fast enough to close it. (Fortunately I only get it ~once a week.) Flash was easily blockable, but javascript, especially something that is compiled to javascript is much harder to catch.
