which is safe to download

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is it safe to download adobe flash or google chrome to my macbook? i have snow leopard and i have heard adobe flash has problems. Many times i try to open an e-mail or something on youtube and i am told i have to download adobe flash. Want to make sure this is safe, or if there is another option that will give me access
 
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chas_m

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It's relatively safe.

Flash has ALWAYS been plagued with security issues because a) IMO it's always been poorly written, and b) it is a plug-in that requires access to many system resources in order to work (like Java) and thus is a good attack vector (like Java) for malware writers.

Adobe does their level best to stay on top of the threats. As long as you keep up-to-date with the latest version (Software Update will NOT take care of this for you), you should be at very low risk of problems.

You can get the latest version for your machine from here:
Adobe - Install Adobe Flash Player

Being on Snow Leopard, running the latest version of Flash is important if you're going to run it at all.

As for Google Chrome, IMO it has two problems:

1. It has Flash built in, and may not always be up to date compared to what Adobe has put out. Usually the Google team update it quite frequently (TOO frequently!), so this may not be much of an issue.

2. The purpose of Chrome -- like most other Google services -- is to gather information on what you do online so that Google can sell that information to advertisers. IMO -- not shared by everyone -- it is akin to fairly benign spyware, albeit not for a particularly sinister purpose. It's a fast, nice browser, no question about it. It just has a not-so-hidden agenda that I don't think Firefox or Safari (et al) share, and doesn't offer me the control over what I share and don't share that even Facebook (a company with the exact same business model) offers me. Again, just my two cents. Feel free to picture me with a tin foil hat on if it helps. :)
 
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IMO, as much as Flash is trashed, and probably for good reason, I can't do without it. There are just too many sites that rely on it. So just buck up and install it. That's what I did. I'll deal with malware when that problem comes up. So far, so good. But do without Flash? No, just can't do that. Hopefully one of theses days, but not right now.
 

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