Why Is Adobe Flash On Linux Still Broken?

mwilliamson writes "As I sit reading my morning paper online I still cannot view the embedded videos due to auto-detection of my Flash player not working. One in every three or four YouTube videos crashes the browser. I remember sometime back reading that Adobe has a very small development team (possibly only one) working on the Linux port of Flash. It has occurred to me that Flash on Linux is the one major entry barrier controlling acceptance of Linux as a viable desktop operating system. No matter how stably, smoothly, efficiently, and correctly Linux runs on a machine, the public will continue to view it as second-rate if Flash keeps crashing. This is the worst example of being tied down and bound by a crappy 3rd-party product over which no Linux distribution has any control. GNASH is nice, but it just isn't there 100%. I really do have to suspect Adobe's motivation for keeping Flash on Linux in such a deplorable state."

Comments

Poor flash not the bigges barrier

[Improv]

Poor Flash is the one major barrier? Pah - there are a number of more pressing issues, like poor wireless support (on the driver level), poor opensource drivers and closed drivers being difficult to configure manually, poor multimedia support on the API level (using SDL helps a bit though), iffy ACPI support on a number of systems, negligible vendor preloads, and probably a number of other things.

That said, excellent flash support would certainly be nice.

Re:Flash as a service delivery platform

[ILuvRamen]

speaking of that, video codecs are a WAY bigger problem than flash. Anyone can live without flash. I'd put codecs and games way before flash any way. And if Red Alert 2/Oblivion/Generals/Starcraft can't run on Linux, I'm installing Windows.