Slashdot Mirror
Flash 7 for Linux Released
molarmass192 writes "Looks like Macromedia has finally made good on their word and provided Linux with a current version of Flash player. Improvements over Flash 6 include a speed boost and support for SOAP. Here's the requisite download link. I took a few seconds to get it set up and the response is noticeably snappier than version 6. In particular, the audio/video sync problems in version 6 seems to have been taken care of. Now, I wonder where they hid that Shockwave player for Linux?"
It's also available as packages for all major distributions from here..
The context-sensitive menus in the Flash plug-in on ALL platforms seem to have some major issues. You right-click over a Flash animation in a Web page, and sometimes you get the ability to change the quality... sometimes you don't. Sometimes, all you get is a useless "options" screen that lets you change things like microphone volume and camera (!!!???) settings, but not things like, oh, speaker volume or video quality. I've seen this problem in Mozilla for Linux and in IE for Windows. WTF up with that?
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Flash 7 for Linux Released I almost jumped in joy thinking that Flash will be released natively for Linux. Flash is the application itself, Flash player is the standalone player and web browser plugin. Oh well.
They're working on a Flash authoring tool called Flex that runs on Linux. The plan is to run it with Wine though, but I guess it's better than nothing. Now we just need Adobe to get with the program.
Has anyone tried this speedup trick in other distro's? I doubt that it's Gentoo specific:
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=176167
The gist of it is setting an environment var:
export FLASH_GTK_LIBRARY=libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0
People in the Gentoo forum are claming massive speed increases when viewing flash. I'm about to go try it now...
--Ajay
Flex is a $12k server based Flash tool, not the more friendly $500.00+ utility like the Macromedia Flash IDE. 'tis not the same thing. It's a start though.
Noli nothis permittere te terere.
I do author in Linux. Just, using PHP + Ming SWF Output library. Sure, it's nothing near a real authoring environment... and DEFINATELY has it's drawbacks... but it gets me by. http://ming.sourceforge.net/
This trick is no longer needed after upgrading to version 7. The plugin will work fine with both gtk1 and gtk2 version of Mozilla / Firefox.
From US Code, Title 17, Chapter 1, Sec. 117: (btw, IANAL)
(a) Making of Additional Copy or Adaptation by Owner of Copy. -
Notwithstanding the provisions of section 106, it is not an infringement for the owner of a copy of a computer program to make or authorize the making of another copy or adaptation of that computer program provided:
(1) that such a new copy or adaptation is created as an essential step in the utilization of the computer program in conjunction with a machine and that it is used in no other manner...
The law works around stupid terms like this one.
http://www.badgerbadgerbadger.com/
currently: the ability to build it with minGW (see yesterday's story for more info) and only using those parts of the Win32 API implemented in Wine.
Posters recognized by their sig,
Just toss those two files into /usr/lib/browser-plugins and away you go.
Works fine with Mozilla, Firefox, also.
Didn't test it with Epiphany etc.
San Diego Padres, 100 Park Blvd, San Diego CA 92101
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by
Reminds me of GriSoft's AVG Free Edition virus scanner license agreement, which has the following clause:
3. You may not use the Software on a network or more than one PC.
- emphasis mine.
Although these days the intent is somewhat clearer from reading the rest of the agreement, there was a time when it wasn't.
I was helping a strapped for cash organisation legitimise their software, and we decided to see if we could find a free virus scanner before forking out cash for one. So I shot off an email asking them to clarify what they meant by 'a network', pointing out that the internet is a network, and one assumes you can have an internet network connection since the software has an email scanner... After a week they sent an email back repeating the the above clause with the word 'network' capitalised.... Sigh, I don't think they got the point....
We ended up paying for a virus scanner, but didn't end up buying it from them.
---
Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves. -- AE
the flashplugin-nonfree package might be updated to use this version. the maintainer is listed here. You could email him/her/them or file a wish-list bug. Or you could hack it up yourself and do a NMU... Or just wait.
Posters recognized by their sig,
First of all, relax.
Second of all, you're full of shit, it's not your computer, it's their content, in some cases artwork, and they can decide how they want it viewed/experianced.
You can choose to not view it or view it as the artist intended.
As for a volume knob, it seems that windows programs stopped having them a while ago (or if they did they simply controlled the system volume) and AFAIK, most linux programs never did (the onese that exist simply control the system mixer)
Buttsex.
but nothing, from Google to grep, can parse the content of a Flash movie.
Troll. Just have a look at this: google for hello world in flash
And this: swfstrings
Still, I think you're right about the fact that Flash is an annoying Internet pollution and should not be over-used in menus or content. But saying one cannot google or grep it is a lie.
main(char O){O++&&(((O-291)*O+27788)*O-868020?1:putchar(O++
Actualy, Macromedia sent letters to customers in form of:
Would you migrate???
Would you buy...???
I guess they got enough positive response to start making authoring tools. You can read press releases for your self on Macromedia
First version will be Wine based, probably Crossover, second is the native version.
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
A tip for my fellow Flash haters: delete mozilla's null plugin. Then it'll stop bugging you about downloading Flash.
(Damn, I guess I won't get to see the latest movie sites. Fortunately I don't care about them. Or the latest movies either.)
The Flash file format is open. I don't understand your point. Just because something is proprietary doesn't make it not open, or bad for that matter. There are tools out there which output Flash and are not made by Macromedia themselves. There are even open source Flash production mechanisms. Yes, Macromedia could at some point change the file format to obfuscate it, yes they could make it non-backwards-compatible, they could even decide to abandon Flash completely. That doesn't put the genie back in the bottle, and its still not making Flash a bad thing in and of itself.
Game dev and music blog
AND, IIRC, the US Navy is moving to PPC/Linux.
But you recall wrong. The Navy is moving to Microsoft Windows. The NMCI is all Microsoft.
Clause 3g reads "don't compete with us", clause 3b read "don't even think about it".
Reads: Here's your notice if case we wish to track you or your usage of the software.
To-do List: Receive telemarketing call during a tornado warning. Check.
Yes. As we announced at a couple of recent Flash Conferences (FlashInTheCan and FlashForward), we are looking into making some of our tools, including Flash available on Linux.
p po rt/2100-7344_3-5170061.html
Here is an article about the Flash Forward conference where we showed Flash MX running on Linux:
http://news.com.com/Macromedia+to+test+Linux+su
Note, if we do move our tools to linux, it will probably be via some emulation layer (such as wine or code weaver's cross office plugin)
http://www.codeweavers.com/
mike chambers
mesh@macromedia.com
Gee, the extra registers might come in handy....
The moral of the story is: "Always remember to mount a scratch monkey."
Like all other for profit co's, the'll port it when a free version comes out which is better than the original and then they will ask why nobody is willing to pay for their sh1t product....
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
Hardly anyone buys software for Linux desktop use, which is really what the thread is about.
In the interview a few weeks back, it seemed like codeweavers was doing fairly well selling crossover to desktop as opposed to corporate users.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Most likely they think they retain some type of advantage by restricting the most efficient version of the player. However, Macromedia's player isn't the only one available. Apple's Quicktime has had the ability to play back Flash since version 4.
A snippet from the press release: "Because the Flash format is vector-based, Flash content is bandwidth efficient and scales automatically to display as designed in any Web browser. The Flash file format (.swf) is an open standard: any software vendor can output Flash files by writing to the specification published on Macromedia's Web site at www.flash.com/open."
(note - if you want the spec, you should really be here instead. But again, when you download it, you agree not to transmit the spec to anyone else, and there's a rule in the license which basically amounts to "the player you design should actually work before you release it.")