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Flash 7 for Linux Released

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the long-time-coming dept.

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?"

17 of 471 comments (clear)

  1. Finally! by mrbarkeeper · · Score: 5, Funny

    Looks like those Linux users finally get all the fun.

  2. Now if only... by Atrax · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... they'd release the authoring tool in a Linux version?

    --
    Screw you all! I'm off to the pub
    1. Re:Now if only... by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      ".. they'd release the authoring tool in a Linux version?"

      Hate to sound like I'm trolling here, but in order to get Macromedia to make authoring tools for Linux, you guys gotta prove you're willing to buy it. All this free-software movement probably puts the taste in a lot of people's mouthes that nobody wants to spend money on software.

    2. Re:Now if only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Oh yeah, no copyright respecting Linux user would ever pay for software. As opposed to those pirating Windows users, who only paid for the OS that came with the machine, not even the one they're running.

      I remember using Windows. Needing a program? Ask a friend, and get a copy of something he got a copy of, registered to a name even he had never heard of.

      Since I switched to Linux, I see the advantage of copyright law (if just everyone would use software they could pay for, we would have way more Linux users), and I pay for my software. I have bought about half the titles Loki released (the rest didn't really interest me), and even Windows games for running under Wine. Actually, I bought more Windows games for running under Wine, than I ever bought when running Windows.

      I am not the only one. Linux users on average have much more respect for copyright than Windows users.

    3. Re:Now if only... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hardly anyone buys software for Linux desktop use, which is really what the thread is about. There is almost zero commerce for Linux and without a single desktop, commercial support and no moving targets, that is hardly ever likely to happen.
      Obviously for server use it's a different story where vendors just treat Linux and a cheap UNIX and porting is easy.

      I use Linux everyday and have for years, but I see no software market at all for desktop apps until things change. Compare this with almost an uncountable number of apps for Windows and Mac.

  3. Hmmm by FannyMinstrel · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now, I wonder where they hid that Shockwave player for Linux?

    /dev/null

  4. Flash + Wine is on its way, they claim by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Apparently they are working to make future versions of Flash Wine-compatible. It may not be a Linux version, but it's not a Windows version, either. It's a Wine API version. That's pretty cool. Of course we would all prefer native binaries, but having something certified as Wine-compatible is in some ways even better in the short term, because it validates that as an option for all the other Windows software companies. Making something Wine compatible is usually fairly simple.

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    mobile porn

  5. Also available as package by G�tz · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's also available as packages for all major distributions from here..

  6. Read the EULA? by jcuervo · · Score: 5, Interesting
    1. You may not make or distribute copies of the Software, or electronically transfer the Software from one computer to another or over a network.
    Just DOWNLOADING it violates the EULA.
    --
    Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
    1. Re:Read the EULA? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Why did this get a troll? It's a good example of how stupid terms get thrown into EULA's all the time.

      Another good example is NVIDIA's driver EULA. Apparently, you can only have one copy of the NVIDIA drivers installed, even if you have more than one NVIDIA vidio chipset.

  7. SuSE Works by managementboy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Tried the install package on SuSe 9.0 and works like a charm. The only drawback is that the user needs to know where their mozilla/firefox is installed. Works noticably faster than before (I also have the feeling that it eats much less CPU time). Next improvement: no flash at all! ;-)

  8. Needs more work, still by etymxris · · Score: 5, Interesting

    By chance I downloaded the newest version as I was reinstalling everything else too. But it still has "jerks" whenever I play a flash game. My slower windows box doesn't have this problem. The problem is reproducible on all three of my linux machines, no matter the processor speed. It makes it especially difficult to play a game like this since there are unexpected jerks in movement.

  9. Misnomer title by diwadm · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  10. Please can we GNU/Linux on PPC peeps have one too by niks42 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've had many emails passed back and forth with Macromedia tech support .. there are versions for most Unix implementations, and MacOS 9 and X .. but not for Linux/PPC *sigh* .. it wouldn't be that difficult to run just one more compile, would it ?

  11. A Speedup Trick... by ajayrockrock · · Score: 5, Informative

    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

  12. Can't use it :( by Per+Wigren · · Score: 5, Interesting

    It's nice to see companies supporting Linux, but unfortunately I can't use it until they make a amd64-version since 64-bit browsers can't use 32-bit plugins..

    The Linux kernel can run 32-bit code but can't link to 64-bit code so to have a 32-bit browser I'd have to also have 32-bit versions of all the libraries it depends on, and their dependancies, all the way down to glibc and ld.so.. Not worth it.

    Is it possible to run isolated 32-bit code inside a 64-bit program? Something like an exec32() libc-function or something? To make 64-bit Mozilla run Flash and make 64-bit MPlayer load win32-codecs.. I'm sure you'll have to make some kind of wrapper-code to convert int-sizes etc when sending/getting data from/to the library, but would it be possible at all?

    --
    My other account has a 3-digit UID.
  13. It is for x86 GNU/Linux, remember that. by latroM · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Looks like Macromedia has finally made good on their word and provided Linux"

    GNU/Linux works on various platforms although the x86 port is the most common. I don't see x86 anywhere in the announcement, do you? If we had the source we had the freedom to compile it on any arch and OS we wanted to. A proprietary software package isn't a contribution to us if our goal is freedom.