x86 Linux Flash Player 9 is Final

Schlaegel writes "The official Adobe Linux Flash blog has announced that Flash player for x86 Linux is now final and no longer beta. Every x86 Linux user, at least those willing to load binary software, can rejoice and no longer feel like a second rate citizen. Distribution packages are also available, for example the Macromedia Fedora repository already has the flash player marked for update."

Re:x64_86

[MrHanky]

You can use nspluginwrapper [beauchesne.info] to use the 32 bit Flash plug-in on AMD64 and compatibles. It works quite well.

Sweet...

[tcopeland]

...now I can get back to work on the Linux port of indi [getindi.com]. It's one of the few Flash desktop apps out there, and it's a shame not to have it on Linux.

Besides, it'd be a waste of all that code I wrote for the Evolution extension [rubyforge.org]!

Alternative open source implmentation

[thue]

The Free Software Foundation is working on an open source implementation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnash [wikipedia.org]

I think it came installed by default in Firefox last time I installed Ubuntu. Currently doesn't seem to work very well, but the effort is worthwhile, and hopefully the software will improve.

Re:No EULA???

[MikeBabcock]

Here's a good one for people who don't read these:

3.1 Web Player Prohibited Devices. You may not Use any Web Player on any non-PC device or with any embedded or device version of any operating system. For the avoidance of doubt, and by example only, you may not use a Web Player on any (a) mobile devices, set top boxes (STB), handhelds, phones, web pads, tablets and Tablet PCs that are not running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, game consoles, TVs, DVD players, media centers (excluding Windows XP Media Center Edition and its successors), electronic billboards or other digital signage, internet appliances or other internet-connected devices, PDAs, medical devices, ATMs, telematic devices, gaming machines, home automation systems, kiosks, remote control devices, or any other consumer electronics device, (b) operator-based mobile, cable, satellite, or television systems or (c) other closed system devices.

Will it fix the synch problem?

[Progman3K]

Whenever I watch a YouTube video, sound and image are not synchronized.

If I run VMWare, boot Windows in it and play the videos inside a browser in Windows, the sound IS synchronized...

I always attributed the problem to the GPL flash player I use.

Can anyone else attest to whether or not this will change things?

Take a second look at flash

[Diacre]

Flash Player 9 is more than just an update to what you all have known as flash. Sure, it will still play older flash content but new content written in Actionscript 3.0 using the new Actionscript Virtual Machine to playback will be way more efficient. The new methodologies for programming have a large base in JAVA, so JAVA developers will have any easy time using this new tool to make true ( rich internet ) applications that have greater ubiquity than JAVA on the web. To be honest, I think it will help take flash away from being a great tool for building horribly intrusive banner ads to being better know as one of the great tools for building rich internet experiences. On the note of proprietary versus open source, sure it is a proprietary program but Macro-Dobe ( Macromedia / Adobe ) have done a great job of using the open source community ( http://www.osflash.org/ [osflash.org] ) to push themselves into making a better product. They support the open source development, even if it competes ( http://osflash.org/red5 [osflash.org] ) directly with one of their products.

Re:No EULA???

[internic]

Ok, that section has me completely confused.

So, it looks like from a quick google search that "Web Player" refers to the flash player itself. What I don't get is how in the world a non-PC device is defined. In their examples they mention "Tablet PCs that are not running Windows XP Tablet PC Edition", but a tablet PC running, say, Linux still seems like a PC to me (even has it in the name!). They also mention "internet appliances or other internet-connected devices" which seems pretty broad, and finally they speak of "media centers (excluding Windows XP Media Center Edition and its successors);" if I install MythTV on my PC and hook it up to my TV does it cease being a PC and become a "media center"? I really can't tell what the requiremetents are here.

Re:Just like Windows...

[Tim C]

MS tried to embrace and extend Java, but failed when Sun took them to court for breach of the licence; they added their own, Windows-specific classes to the java.* package hierarchy, which you're not allowed to do. Had they added them to a com.microsoft package hierarchy they'd have been fine - but then Java devs would've realised they weren't part of the core API and potentially avoided them.

I note that this does not disprove your point, in fact if anything it reinforces it - Java was not completely open, and it was this partially closed nature that saved it.