Why does Firefox list of plugins show "Shockwave Flash" when what is installed is really Adobe Flash Player; they are different .
Adobe; various websites; and now seemingly Firefox seem to continually confuse and obscure things regarding the two different Adobe Players (Adobe Flash Player AFP and Adobe Shockwave Player ASP). According to this security alert web article ASP is far less secure than AFP which itself isn't great. The article http://krebsonsecurity.com/2014/05/why-you-should-ditch-adobe-shockwave/ indicates:
Mozilla Firefox users should note that the presence of the “Shockwave Flash” plugin listed in the Firefox Add-ons section denotes an installation of Adobe Flash Player plugin — not Adobe Shockwave Player.
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My Firefox is working, but this confusion of calling things by their proper (or at least a unique name) seems crazy to me. If this is accurate can someone get Firefox to name things correctly, AND if article is accurate let this be a warning to others that they NOT use ASP, but as needed rely on AFP. There are Adobe test pages for each so you want to make sure that AFP succeeds and the other ASP fails to play.
Chosen solution
"Adobe Flash Player" plugin for Firefox displays as "Shockwave Flash" in the Firefox plugins list. http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer.html
"Adobe Shockwave Player" plugin for Firefox displays as "Shockwave for Director" in the Firefox plugins list. http://www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer.html
The Shockwave (for director) player is not used much now days except for say some games and learning tools for example.
The versions in image example are older but it tells you which is which.
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hello, "Adobe Flash Player" and "Shockwave Flash" are the same thing - the latter is the technical term of the plugin that adobe kept for compatibility reasons after it acquired the technology from another company (macromedia)...
Sounds to me that you are further confusing the situation by coming up with your own abbreviations for Shockwave Flash and Shockwave for Director. ASP and AFP??
The labels for both of those Adobe products aren't created by Mozilla, but rather Firefox displays what Adobe calls them in the Plugins section of the Add-ons Manager - taken from the files that Adobe installs on on the users PC for Firefox..
Plus the Mozilla Plugin Check page shows each of those separately. http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/plugincheck/ Mozilla isn't creating any confusion. Macromedia did a fine job of creating that confusion years ago, long before Adobe was in the picture by naming those two Plugins with similar names.
Chosen Solution
"Adobe Flash Player" plugin for Firefox displays as "Shockwave Flash" in the Firefox plugins list. http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer.html
"Adobe Shockwave Player" plugin for Firefox displays as "Shockwave for Director" in the Firefox plugins list. http://www.adobe.com/products/shockwaveplayer.html
The Shockwave (for director) player is not used much now days except for say some games and learning tools for example.
The versions in image example are older but it tells you which is which.
Modified by James
Thanks for responses. I now understand that the "confusing" naming is inherited by Mozilla (Firefox) however since Firefox is capable of displaying a message about a Plugin e.g. Java Deployment Kit, it seems it could do so for the two distinct Adobe "players" and make things clearer, rather than perpetuate the mess.
Since Phillip in this thread (incorrectly) claims that the two are the same, it seems like there is room for helping make things clearer to Firefox users.
Thank you James for the clear information.
"Adobe Flash Player" and "Shockwave Flash" does indeed refer to the same thing.
It is the Shockwave for director or Shockwave player that is different.