Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Macromedia to Port Flash MX to Linux?

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the possible-plans-of-action dept.

LnxAddct writes "An article on CNet reports that Macromedia will start taking Linux more seriously. It will start this new initiative by making it's suite of tools run easily under WINE, then depending on the response it gets, it will port it's tools natively to Linux! Their Chief Software Architect, Kevin Lynch, stated, 'What we've been investigating is, When will it be time to bring our tools to Linux? I think it might be happening now.' Maybe 2004 will be the year of Linux."

26 of 702 comments (clear)

  1. Sweet. by hookedup · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is half the reason I dont use linux on the desktop. Now, get me a stable version of Photoshop CS, and I'm in.

    1. Re:Sweet. by rokzy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      but Acrobat Reader sucks on Windows too, especially the latest one (6) which takes twice as long to load (cf 5), offers no improvments, adds some new buttons to make the interface more cluttered, and displays a list of 100 patents while loading to piss me off.

      plus I hate programs that force useless things on me. is there a way to make the "My eBooks" directory fuck off?

    2. Re:Sweet. by abandonment · · Score: 5, Informative

      no kidding...every time it creates the directory...every time i delete it afterwards... my computer is cluttered enough with crap that i don't need programs assuming how i organize things - and provide NO way to change the default behavior...

      --
      Gekido's Lair
    3. Re:Sweet. by Hooded+One · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You can speed up Acrobat significantly by getting rid of unneeded plugins, either by deleting them or moving them to another directory. There are only a small handful you'll ever actually use. It could still stand to be a lot faster, but it's better than it comes out of the box.

  2. Thank god ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Thank god, because the only thing the world needs more is more adoption of Flash.

    1. Re:Thank god ... by Associate · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Right on!
      Friends don't let friends use flash.

      --
      Someone hates these cans.
  3. Screw that! by i_am_syco · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm still waiting for Microsoft to port Office to Linux! Then I'll switch over.

    1. Re:Screw that! by CleverNickName · · Score: 5, Funny

      And open office isn't good enough? besides, what's wrong with just using vi for word processing? Simple, reliable. if you are liike me and can spel prefect, vi will due everything you could evar want.

      And if you don't like vi, I hear that there's a text editor in emacs.

      I've never been able to find it, but I hear it's there.

    2. Re:Screw that! by bfg9000 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Simply hit Ctrl-Meta-Shift-X-U-G, then Meta-Shift-Q-Shift-P-77, then type gvaomp-txt

      Don't worry, it becomes quite natural after a while.

      --

      I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."

  4. So, it finally paid by pcmanjon · · Score: 5, Funny

    All them emails I sent them finally paid off!!

    1. Re:So, it finally paid by Zakabog · · Score: 5, Funny

      Actually I think it was my snail mail which included a note that said "Please port flash to linux or I'll send more pics" and a pic of myself naked. Although your e-mail may have helped a bit too.

    2. Re:So, it finally paid by Flashbck · · Score: 5, Funny

      Apparantly my numerous bug reports informing them of the major bug "flash doesn't seem to install under linux properly" finally paid off!

  5. Disaster waiting with WINE by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They might as well just come out and say they will not support Linux. My experiences with WINE have been, shall I say, bitter. I've managed to get a few games running with it, but never without significant hassle or loss of resources (sound, fullscreen, etc.).

    The roadmap to desktop acceptance for Linux cannot go through WINE.

    1. Re:Disaster waiting with WINE by damiam · · Score: 5, Informative

      That's their point. They are going to work to get Flash working well in WINE, hopefully on the same level that Office works with Crossover (which is really WINE). WINE can work damn well, it just usually doesn't, unless it's been tuned for a specific app, or the app's been tuned to it.

      --
      It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
  6. Linux voids finally being filled... by oldosadmin · · Score: 5, Interesting

    There are some software titles that just -need- to be ported to linux, do to lack of OSS alternatives. The Macromedia MX line of tools is -definately- one of those.

    AFAIK, there is no alternative to Flash MX on Linux -- yes, Openoffice.org Impress will save to Flash, but to some designers, that's simply not powerful enough.

    And Dreamweaver MX is the -only- wysiwyg editor that I will allow to touch my code. It works cleanly and with compatibility, something no other wysiwyg editor, even oss ones, can claim. (disclaimer: I code in gedit ;D).

    On a side note -- didn't I read something a few months back about Adobe doing something similar with Photoshop?

    --
    Jay | http://oldos.org
    1. Re:Linux voids finally being filled... by AMystery · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I feel the same way. The lack of Dreamweaver was one thing that kept me on windows for longer than I wanted. Ever since I finally made the move I have been searching freshmeat, hoping that somewhere there was that miracle program that would do what I needed, but no such luck. Dreamweaver is by far the best WYSIWYG HTML editor, and for those who claim notepad (emacs), I can only assume you have never used dreamweaver. Its great how you can work with the code while also having the full power of a visual editor that just works. (Its like using a Mac:)

      I would prefer to have a native port, as my experiences with WINE have been less than stellar, but I will take whatever I can get.

      On a related note, I used Frontpage to make a site lately, mainly because I needed something simple, cheap and fast and it just happened to be on the system with MS Office. What happened to it? It used to be just a horrid WYSIWYG editor, but it has gone down hill! 2003 couldn't even upload the site and when I did finally get it up, it was broken, because it couldn't transfer its own _derived directory which for some strange reason contained most of the images. Admittedly I had low expectations, but it managed to underwhelm even those.

      Long live dreamweaver! Gimp is great for graphics, and while I miss Photoshop since it is what I learned, i am happy with the replacement. Give me dreamweaver and I will be happy.

      David, Frustrated Web Artist Extraordinaire.

    2. Re:Linux voids finally being filled... by capz+loc · · Score: 5, Insightful

      A few months back I had the opportunity to talk with a representative from Adobe who said that they have no plans to release any of their products for Linux until there is a larger customer base.

      Unfortunately, this has become the chicken-and-egg scenario, where vendors won't make software for Linux until there are more people using it, while there will never be people migrating to Linux until there is more software that will run on it.

      As much as I hate it, I feel that WINE is a good intermediate step in this situation, because it gives Macromedia a low-commitment opportunity to feel out the Linux market without fully porting the software.

    3. Re:Linux voids finally being filled... by cozziewozzie · · Score: 5, Informative

      You might want to try out Quanta. It's been making great strides recently, and its visual (WYSIWYG-ish) layer looks like it will be the best thing since sliced bread. In any case, it is one of the programs with the most devoted following in linux-land.

  7. Wrong Software To Port? by rsmith-mac · · Score: 5, Insightful

    While I applaud any efforts to get more software running natively on Linux, I have to ask: why Flash? I mean as far as most of us are concerned, it's the scourge of the internet, responsible for a slew of poorly designed sites, bad flash movies, and anoying advertisements. If Macromedia wants to go after the Linux crowd, wouldn't a more appreciable tool like Dreamweaver be a better choice?

    1. Re:Wrong Software To Port? by jimbosworldorg · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Because, whether you think it's generally a horrid abomination or not, more and more sites use Flash for essential navigation tools, and up until now, it's worked... inconsistently... at best under any platform but Win32.

      Native Flash rendering under *nix could be a very very big step forward towards getting mainstream acceptance for *nix as a mainstream desktop platform.

      --

      Coming soon to Slashdot: meta-meta-moderation!

    2. Re:Wrong Software To Port? by Tumbleweed · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why HTML? I mean as far as most of us are concerned, it's the scourge of the internet, responsible for a slew of poorly designed sites, bad GIF movies, and annoying advertisements. If Macromedia wants to go after the Linux crowd, wouldn't a more appreciable tool like Gopher be a better choice?

      ---

      Look, you can use any tool improperly. That doesn't mean the fault is with the TOOL. As with frames in HTML, so with Flash. A bad designer is going to do things badly, no matter the tool or technology.

  8. Fingers Crossed by illuminata · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh Macromedia, please please please/b> bring DREAMWEAVER. I"m having a hell of a time with posting comments to Slashdot. It would make my life easier if I wouldn't have to do my own HMTL.

    --


    Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
  9. Re:eaiser to run? by Shados · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actualy having your QA team try it and consider Wine bugs real bugs... I mean...they have access to the official source code... How many things don't run in Wine because of an half buggy splash screen, a messed up installer, or because they rounded up the corners using some "features" (read: bugs) of Windows to their advantage... That would be how: by actualy trying those things... Lots of things that dont work in Wine, would with a few hours of cleaning up code... If I remember well, its even written somewhere on the Wine page, that programs can be made "for" Wine, and will then work flawlessly in both environnements...

  10. Flash For Linux alread OSS by nicklaszlo · · Score: 5, Informative

    The F4L project (at sourceforge) is already working on an open source alternative to Macromedia's monopoly. The GUI is already in place in version .01, and there are already libraries in the wild for editing .SWF files (based on information released by Macromedia), so it is only a matter of developer time before it is finished. I run the F4L Documentation Project. You can chat about F4L at irc.freenode.net and #F4L

    --
    Center for Student Developed Education Policy
  11. Re:How About by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    You mean like the Flash Click To View plugin?

    It turns all Flash animations into a little button - which loads and shows the flash animation only when you click on it.

  12. adobe's going backwards by abandonment · · Score: 5, Informative

    instead of increasing the number of platforms that their products work on, adobe has been reducing it... premiere no longer works on mac (once considered THE platform for premiere) because of heavy reliance on the windows media format in the latest premiere version (can use wmv as a 'native' format for editing)... i doubt that adobe will clue into linux, we'll have to rely on hoping that the gimp folks will figure out how to make an interface that is comprehensible and we can get rid of photoshop once and for all

    --
    Gekido's Lair