Catch up on stories from the past week (and beyond) at the Slashdot story archive

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Desktops (Apple) Windows Linux

Adobe Releases Flash Player 24 For Linux Four Years After the Last Major Update (bleepingcomputer.com) 88

Posted by msmash from the you're-not-forgotten dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Adobe released today Flash Player 24 for Linux, after previously abandoning the application without explanation in 2012. The NPAPI architecture of Flash Player for Linux is now on par with Windows and Mac releases on version 24, after spending the last few years stuck at version 11.2 and only receiving small patches and security fixes, but no new features. Today's Flash Player 24 for Linux release comes after Adobe teased its release on August 31, and later released a Beta version (v23) in October. Despite updating Flash Player for Linux to the same version number as its Windows and Mac alternatives, the Linux variant still lags behind on features. While Flash Player 24 includes all the security features included in the Windows and Mac versions, the Linux version doesn't support accelerated GPU 3D acceleration and video DRMs. If users need these features, Adobe says users should use Chrome for Linux, where Google's own port, the Pepper Flash plugin (PPAPI architecture) supports them.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Adobe Releases Flash Player 24 For Linux Four Years After the Last Major Update More

Adobe Releases Flash Player 24 For Linux Four Years After the Last Major Update

Comments Filter:

  • no 3d, no drm (Score:3)

    by sirber ( 891722 ) on Monday December 19, 2016 @03:08PM (#53515991)
    most user uses chrome which has flash and will ditch it soon. why release that?
    • sirber said

      most user uses chrome which has flash and will ditch it soon. why release that?

      I think you're right, Flash has a limited shelf life. But Adobe is releasing the Flash Player for Linux anyway because Linux has become an essential part of the computing playing field. For example, Linux is on Azure, and some of Microsoft's most powerful tools are on Linux, like SQL Server, and .NET. At this point, Linux can't be neglected.

      Besides, I don't think the general public is the user base Adobe is responding to. Adobe is releasing the Flash Player because business want it. Companies

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by donaldm ( 919619 )

      most user uses chrome which has flash and will ditch it soon. why release that?

      True, but if you have a Flash video (ie *.flv) you could always use VLC [videolan.org] or MPV [mpv.io] to play them.

      Of course, if you don't like flash videos in their raw format you could use HandBreak [handbrake.fr] to transcode them, although a word of warning, HandBreak is really CPU intensive so you would be better off with a decent one unless you don't mind the wait.

      For most Linux distributions you can download the players or transcoder by using their respective repository allowing them to be automatically maintained. Also for

  • I mean, it's not like Flash is one of the most widely used channels of attack across the entire spectrum of malwar, oh wait...

    Shit.

    Nevermind.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Octorian ( 14086 )

      Considering that everyone keeps acting like Flash is no longer required or relevant or should be cared about...

      Oh wait, every other website across the ENTIRE INTERNET still seems to at least attempt to use Flash. Seriously, turn on Firefox's plugin prompting setting and just try browsing the web.

      At least most of them no longer break if you are missing the plugin, or don't let it run. But they still try.

      • Uninstall Flash and you won't see much difference. Practically all sites have HTML5 players now.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by zixxt ( 1547061 )

          Html5 video is slower than Flash video on my systems. YMMV

          • at least the html5 video is slightly less likely to also come with a malicious payload.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Rakarra ( 112805 )

              at least the html5 video is slightly less likely to also come with a malicious payload.

              Yeah, but it's damned hard to block, unlike Flash which was 100% blocked if I didn't have a Flash plugin or used a blocker.

      • every other website across the ENTIRE INTERNET still seems to at least attempt to use Flash

        Are you on the same internet I am? I rarely hit flash sites now. The streaming sites seem to have almost all made the mode to html5. I get occasional complaints from my kid about flash game sites not working, and that seems to be it. Some crappy games, a few crappy web sites, that's all that is left. Flash menus are pretty much completely gone, thanks for that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by r1348 ( 2567295 )

      They did keep it updated with security patches, it's just that the version never moved on from 11.2

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by zixxt ( 1547061 )

      I mean, it's not like Flash is one of the most widely used channels of attack across the entire spectrum of malwar, oh wait...

      Shit.

      Nevermind.

      NPAPI Flash on Linux has always been updated getting updates nearly 6 to 10 times a year for the past few years. And its not like there not attacks on HTML and JS, more prone to malware suring with JS and using HTML than using flash.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hawk ( 1151 )

      The linux version won't have *true* parity until it can host a remote privilege escalation to root . . .

      hawk

  • Great! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19, 2016 @03:11PM (#53516001)
    The last reason I had to stay on Windows is now gone. May the year of Linux on the desktop begin!

  • Homestar Runner, here I come! (Score:3)

    by mekkab ( 133181 ) on Monday December 19, 2016 @03:13PM (#53516015) Homepage Journal
    Allright! Can't wait to get at all that brand new flash content!

  • Chromium Pepper Flash does not have DRM Support. (Score:5, Informative)

    by Zombie Ryushu ( 803103 ) on Monday December 19, 2016 @03:17PM (#53516039)

    Chromium Pepper Flash for Linux does not have DRM Support either. The only way to get DRM support for Pepper Flash is to get it from an image for an x86_64 Chromebook, or use PipeLight But Pepper Flash does support 3-D.

  • About fucking time. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The number of IT applications that I've had to revert to a windows VM for is absurd. The most irritating? vCenter.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by HuguesT ( 84078 )

      Does not compute. vcenter server appliance [theregister.co.uk] is a Linux virtual machine running on ESXi, which you access through a web browser. Using a Windows VM for that is definitely not required.

      • Does not compute. vcenter server appliance [theregister.co.uk] is a Linux virtual machine running on ESXi, which you access through a web browser. Using a Windows VM for that is definitely not required.

        Now guess what plug-in you need(*) for the web browser so you can manage vCenter, Yeah, it's fucking Flash. (*) Well, to be fair, they announced "The vSphere Web Client of Tomorrow" that works with HTML 5,

  • Had to google it (Score:3, Funny)

    by dr.Flake ( 601029 ) on Monday December 19, 2016 @03:20PM (#53516057)

    Whats up with those dumb editors on slashdot. Can't they just explain what this stuff is??
    Not everybody around here just happens to know what this "Flash" is (catchy name BTW)

    According to wikipedia it is some type of programming language mostly used for animations and online games.
    Apparently it was quickly abused by millions of hackers and douchy advertising lowlifes so it quickly became obsolete for a large part of western civilization.

    Good to see all those bright people sticking with their dream to make something great and still updating this old stuff.

    • Whats up with those dumb editors on slashdot. Can't they just explain what this [flash] stuff is??

      You do not know what Flash is? You are either very lucky, or very young :-)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hawk ( 1151 )

        Or maybe he doesn't know to stay away from men whose bare legs stick out below their trenchcoats . . . :)

        hawk

  • And nobody installs it. Please. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Flash needs to die.

  • Flash is dead.
    So long, and thanks for all the fish.

  • Just die already. (Score:3)

    by forgottenusername ( 1495209 ) on Monday December 19, 2016 @03:38PM (#53516179)

    Dear proprietary, bloated malware attack vector from hell; foad. No one wants you. Your parents hate you. Your girlfriend became a lesbian after seeing you naked. You are a stinking pustule, a soon to be forgotten constant annoyance with your privacy violations, supercookies, security flaws and general worthlessness. Please take Adobe with you.

  • is that they got tired of backporting security fixes and decided to sync codebases instead.

  • Users don't need DRM (Score:5, Insightful)

    by wonkey_monkey ( 2592601 ) on Monday December 19, 2016 @04:11PM (#53516519) Homepage

    and video DRMs. If users need these features

    No user needs the feature that is DRM.

  • Just let it die already and end his (our) misery.

  • If you're wondering, this stands for Pen Pineapple Apple Pen Internals.

  • acrobat reader is the only pdf reader I've used that supports complex pdfs with embedded scripting... I don't have many pdfs that require this, but I do have a few, and no pdf reader other than Acrobat supports them.

    Also, Acrobat was the only reader I've ever used that had a facility to print in "booklet" mode, which was kind of nice for printing out things like product instruction manuals.

  • Er, no, Adode didn't release Flash 24 for Linux on 19th Dec, it was actually 6 days earlier [adobe.com] than that. Heck, I even picked it up on my CentOS 7 system on 15th Dec via their convenient repo [adobe.com]. I guess after 4.5 years [adobe.com] of version stagnation, being almost a week late with the story might be expected...

  • It still doesn't support any useful options, for example the ability to globally set Rendering Quality to "medium" or "low" so the obscene super-sampling algorithm doesn't bring a modern system to its knees..

  • Flash for OS X has to be updated every time we use it, just like that ever-popular companion product for Windows, Adobe Reader.

  • I'll continue to run my internet access computer with Ubuntu without Flash.

    On a daily basis I scan Yahoo News, Google News, Slashdot, and several other news aggregators to try to keep up with the world, while avoiding getting sucked into any echo chambers or news bubbles. That means I see stories from a hundred or more different web sites over a week's time. If a story depends on a Flash component, then I am comfortable in blowing it off without reading it, since it is certain that if there was any real co

Slashdot Top Deals

The trouble with being punctual is that nobody's there to appreciate it. -- Franklin P. Jones

Close