If you’ve used a computer for very long at all, you probably already know Apple and Adobe’s Flash Player plugin aren’t exactly best buds. To the contrary, Ex-CEO Steve Jobs has a real aversion to Flash, and is on record as saying that it is a “dying technology”, and Apple actively prevents Flash in any way from showing up on its iOS-based devices.

With the latest release of the Mac OX X 10.7 Lion desktop operating system, Apple removed the Flash Player plugin from being a part of the default OS. If you use Safari on a website like Youtube on a brand new Lion installation, you’ll be warned you need to “upgrade your Adobe Flash Player to watch this video”.

Should you do it anyway? Really it depends on how often you’ll be using the plugin, and, more importantly, how you stand on resources depending on the CPU model in your Mac. Following are three methods for blocking, or reducing, Flash usage on your Mac while still being able to avail yourself of its capabilities.

Don’t install it

The simplest, most effective method of making certain you’ll hardly ever have to see a Flash-based video or Internet ad is, just don’t install it. That’s Apple’s prescribed path, period; no ifs, ands or buts. But what if you really like Youtube or other sites which require Flash in order for you see the content? There are a couple of options open to you:

The most effective way to ensure that you almost never have to see a Flash-based video or advertisement on the Internet ever again is to simply follow in Apple’s prescribed path and leave the plugin uninstalled. But what of , which requires Flash in order to dazzle you with its content? You have a couple of options open to you.

Switch to HTML5

Many people are not aware that does provide a way for you to switch to HTML5 versions of videos on the website. Using H.264 versions of videos instead of Flash, the HTML5 player is much less of a resource hog. Though it can’t do fullscreen video, it does have almost every other feature of Flash, including changing the playback rate or video quality. It won’t work, however, with videos containing ads, which renders a large portion of the website unusable for a Flash-challenged user.

If you want to keep the HTML5 but don’t want ads, you can try using YouTube5, a free extension for Safari that finesses YouTube into using HTML5 instead of Flash without need of you being required to sign up for the site’s HTML5 trial. You won’t be able to speed up or slowdown video playback using the HTML5 player provided by the plugin, and many users have problems getting its fullscreen feature to work, but on the flip side of the coin, it is able to play back all the videos on the site, and without any ads!

Use Google Chrome

Understandably, Google of a Flash-to-HTML5 extension for its browser, since it would remove ads from YouTube, taking away Google’s main source of revenue, but it does come with the Flash Player plugin neatly bundled into the browser itself, which makes it independent of the operating system’s support of the feature.

And so, if Safari is your primary browser but now and then you need to load a webpage which has Flash content, you can instead use to access it. If, however, you find yourself having to switch browsers to often, it might be time to either make a permanent switch to Google Chrome, or else use one of the other choices below.

Use it on an as-needed basis

If you often find yourself on websites which use Flash heavily, it can become a real time-consuming chore to have to keep changing browsers just to access those particular sites (you can use AppleScript to open the current URL in Google Chrome). When you reach that point, you might find the easiest choice is just to go ahead and install Flash on your Mac, and then hope and pray none of your hardcore Mac loving buds reveal your foul deed to Steve Jobs.

However, even if you have Flash installed, you don’t have to be subjected to system slowdowns or browser crashes due to all the Flash-based advertising and self-playing videos found on the Web. To make sure Flash content you come across is blocked unless you explicitly wish to permit it to load, there are several browser extensions around to help you. There’s ClickToFlash for Safari, FlashBlock for Google Chrome and Flashblock for Mozilla Firefox.

When you use any of these extensions, instead of Flash content on webpages, there will be clickable targets which, when clicked on, will activate the content you wish to see. As they go about doing their job, the extensions are designed so that they preserve the page layout, and you don’t have to view mangled pages on the Web in order to avoid Flash. Being very effective at their job, they ensure that the Flash plugin doesn’t load at all until such time you wish it to, enabling you to maintain firm control of your Mac’s resources.

Block it whenever you feel like it

If you want to control Flash playback on your Mac even more, you might want to consider using Flash Block or FlashFrozen, menubar apps which you can purchase for $1 each at the Mac App Store. They sit in your Mac’s menubar, taking the systemwide Flash plugin firmly under their control, ready to stop it in its tracks at your command.

By clicking their icons in the menubar, you’re given the option of not only temporarily disabling the Flash plugin, but you also have the choice to disable it permanently until sometime in the future you decide you need it again. So if your CPU usage starts making you think your Mac is getting ready for a Moon launch after you’ve loaded lots of Flash-based content in numerous tabs, or even in multiple browsers simultaneously, you can use these apps to kill the Flash plugin and send all those videos hurtling back into Cyberspace from whence they came, freeing up your CPU for more important things. Later, if you reload any of the pages, the Flash plugin will be restored, and you can start watching the videos again.

FlashFrozen has a bit of an advantage over FlashBlock, since its menubar icon can alert you to how much of your Mac’s resources are being used by Flash. If the icon is grayed out, it means the Flash plugin isn’t loaded. If the icon is in its normal state, it means Flash content is playing, but not using too many resources. And if the icon is red, it’s warning you that your system is being brought to a crawl by the Flash plugin, and it’s probably time for you to click on the icon and stop Flash.

Wrapping it all up…

Now you have some new weapons in your personal arsenal to protect your Mac’s resources from being overtaxed by Flash, and at the same time still be able to enjoy the benefits Flash can afford you. One final item worthy of note is, despite the inherent disadvantages of Flash, it continues to be the most widely used plugin for viewing online video and animation, meaning we still have “a fer piece to go” to reach a Flash-free world. Until that time arrives, the options outlined above are probably your best choices.

(Via: TNW)