Yesterday I went to FedEx.com to order some printed fliers from my desktop. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. Along with other idiots committed to proprietary Flash UI, FedEx is one of the last holdouts who won’t let customers give them money unless they install Flash. So VistaPrint got my business.
The Register noted that they’ll even give you $5 to compromise your computer.
But the web-based config-o-tronic widgets that let you whip and order those masterpieces requires Adobe Flash, the enemy of anyone interested in security and browser stability. And by anyone we mean Google, which with Chrome 56 will only load Flash if users say they want to use it, and Microsoft which will stop supporting Flash in its Edge browser when the Windows 10 Creators Update debuts. Mozilla’s Firefox will still run Flash, but not for long.
FedEx helpfully advises that if you don’t want to compromise your computer, even for five whole dollars, you can jump through a bunch of hoops to order without using Flash via their mobile app. It does not require Flash because Flash is banned on many a mobile OS. I kinda want to print a bunch of pamphlets to hand out in front of FedEx HQ telling them to get with the times.