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Linux Now an Equal Flash Player

Posted by timothy on from the cheek-by-jowl dept.

nerdyH writes "As recently as 2007, Linux users waited six months for Flash 9 to arrive. Now, with Microsoft pushing its Silverlight alternative, Adobe is touting the universality of its Flash format, which has penetrated '98 percent of Internet-enabled desktops,' it claims. And, it today released Flash 10 for Linux concurrently with other platforms. Welcome to the future." Handily enough, Real Networks released this summer RealPlayer 11 for Linux, the first release for which they've included a .deb package, and offers nightly builds of their Helix player, for which Linux is one of the supported platforms.

5 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. This is News by steve_thatguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Complaints about lack of Photoshop and a 64-bit version aside (it's interesting how much Slashdot resembles a sewing circle of old ladies in the complaints department), this is actually pretty significant news. Especially if this is the beginning of a new Way Things are Done for the Flash developers. With most major video sites using Flash-based players and the other wealth of Flash content on other websites, Flash support is pretty essential for desktop users. This is a major stepping stone. Hopefully Adobe will see enough rewards from doing this that will encourage them to embrace the Linux platform even more.

  2. Re:No 64-bit by Omnifarious · · Score: 5, Interesting

    My theory is that Adobe's Flash player is a horrible hack that is so utterly fragile and bug-ridden that Adobe can't actually make a 64-bit version without doing a full rewrite.

    --
    Need a Python, C++, Unix, Linux develop
  3. Some more equal than others... by bconway · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Looks like they changed it during they beta to require glibc 2.4-based Linux distributions (RHEL 4, CentOS 4, Debian 4 are out) for stack-smashing protection.

    Link.

    --
    Interested in open source engine management for your Subaru?
  4. Re: news is already available by John+Dowdell · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Most of the 64-bit work is still in the opensource Tamarin Project. You can still contribute, if you've got the chops.
    http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/2006/10/whats_so_difficult_64bit_editi.html
    http://www.kaourantin.net/2006/11/spidermonkeys-relative-tamarin-joins.html

    The "we'll maintain it for you" line has not particularly been borne out by experience.... ;-)

    jd/adobe

  5. Now do the same for Shockwave Player by Joe+The+Dragon · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Now do the same for Shockwave Player so it can be on linux as well.

    Time line for flash on iphone?