Adobe Releases Flash Player 24 For Linux Four Years After the Last Major Update (bleepingcomputer.com) 88
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.
no 3d, no drm (Score:3)
Re: no 3d, no drm (Score:1)
A 4 year hiatus hardly counts as "maintaining."
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A 4 year hiatus hardly counts as "maintaining."
They didn't port features within those years, but they sometimes ported bug/security fixes.
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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
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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
Four years isn't so bad. (Score:2)
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.
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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.
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Uninstall Flash and you won't see much difference. Practically all sites have HTML5 players now.
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Html5 video is slower than Flash video on my systems. YMMV
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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.
Re: Four years isn't so bad. (Score:2)
About the only thing I find it useful for is Spotify, but that's really only as I'm looking for new music.
I'll download/buy it and play it locally on my machine after I'm done looking for new stuff.
Other than that I dont really know what else I use that actually requires it these days. I can do without Spotify. It just has a really large collection of all kinds of music, so its easy.
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What's wrong with Spotify admins?
Re: Four years isn't so bad. (Score:2)
Spotify needs DRM to keep their streams from being perfectly ripped.
DRM and open-source are somewhat incompatible.
It's not a Spotify problem, but a reality problem.
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Spotify needs DRM to keep their streams from being perfectly ripped. DRM and open-source are somewhat incompatible. It's not a Spotify problem, but a reality problem.
Any perception of reality that leads them to conclude that Flash is the correct solution would indicate a severe issue with mental competence.
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Any perception of reality that leads them to conclude that Flash is the correct solution would indicate a severe issue with mental competence.
"Fine, FINE!!! We'll move to Silverlight then."
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Yeah. Exactly.
There's options here, and one of them is definitely the worst.
(Off tomorrow to troubleshoot a camera system that uses Silverlight for its only interface. Yes, really: A local Silverlight application. There are no words.)
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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.
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They did keep it updated with security patches, it's just that the version never moved on from 11.2
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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.
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The linux version won't have *true* parity until it can host a remote privilege escalation to root . . .
hawk
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I'll let it go when HTML5 hardware decodes video. Until then, flash it is. You must really enjoy 100% CPU usage on videos.
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It already does that, at least for h264. VP9 is accelerated only on Intel I believe.
Great! (Score:5, Funny)
Homestar Runner, here I come! (Score:3)
Chromium Pepper Flash does not have DRM Support. (Score:5, Informative)
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)
The number of IT applications that I've had to revert to a windows VM for is absurd. The most irritating? vCenter.
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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.
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access through a web browser
that must have a version of flash that was newer than the newest version released for Linux
No, it works with Chrome on Linux. At least it worked for me this morning accessing a 5.5 vSphere Web Client.
(I haven't tried firefox with Flash 24, but there are a number of sites I need that needed a newer version of Flash, and in many cases the version shipped with Chrome works).
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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)
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.
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Can you think of another onomatopoeic word that ends in "sh"?
That's it (Score:2)
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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 :-)
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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)
Flash needs to die.
Dead (Score:2)
Flash is dead.
So long, and thanks for all the fish.
Just die already. (Score:3)
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.
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In the past at least, lots of artists wanted flash, because no one provided an easy alternative to do light bandwidth vector animation. Today I see people watching flash videos as youtube videos, with more lag than the originals had on old connections. While I agree that flash had tons of security problems, it did fulfill a need.
Given its original purpose was an animation tool, that makes sense. It wasn't until all the interactivity to make games/websites that it became a problem.
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How about getting the application developers to move off of it before killing it off?
How about letting the flash application developers rot in a special corner of hell?
One possible explanation (Score:2)
Users don't need DRM (Score:5, Insightful)
and video DRMs. If users need these features
No user needs the feature that is DRM.
Like keeping a brain-dead paint on life support (Score:2)
Just let it die already and end his (our) misery.
PPAPI architecture (Score:1)
Great... can they do the same for Acrobat? (Score:3)
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.
6 days old "news"... (Score:2)
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...
After all these years (Score:2)
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..
This is NOT on a par with Flash for Mac (Score:2)
Flash for OS X has to be updated every time we use it, just like that ever-popular companion product for Windows, Adobe Reader.
Using Flash as a fake news filter (Score:2)
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
Mustard after a meal (Score:2)