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Adobe (Temporarily?) Kills 64-Bit Flash For Linux

Posted by Soulskill on from the how-rude dept.

An anonymous reader writes "It seems that with the release of the 10.1 security patches, Adobe has, at least temporarily, killed 64-bit Flash for Linux. The statement says: 'The Flash Player 10.1 64-bit Linux beta is closed. We remain committed to delivering 64-bit support in a future release of Flash Player. No further information is available at this time. Please feel free to continue your discussions on the Flash Player 10.1 desktop forums.' The 64-bit forum has been set to read-only."

15 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. Flash Sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    That's one down. Now, get them to cancel flash on i386 Linux, then on MacOS, then Windows, and we'll be all set.

  2. flash killer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    First Apple, and now Adobe as the new flash killer. Good job

  3. Committed by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Funny

    By committed, we mean not really committed at all.

    We know that Silverlight is suppoting 64-bit. We know that Microsoft has been pushing 64-bit since 2003. We know all new Windows 7 PCs are coming 64-bit. And we will continue to keep our heads in the sand.

    Thanks for your continued patronage.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    1. Re:Committed by VGPowerlord · · Score: 4, Interesting

      We know that Silverlight is suppoting 64-bit. We know that Microsoft has been pushing 64-bit since 2003. We know all new Windows 7 PCs are coming 64-bit. And we will continue to keep our heads in the sand.

      You are aware that the default browser in 64-bit Windows is 32-bit Internet Explorer?

      --
      GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
  4. Footcannon: aim, fire, reload ... by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 4, Funny

    Oh well, it looks like Adobe wants us 64bit Linux users to focus on H.264, which is really great with hardware acceleration in the graphics card. Uh, wait a minute...

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
  5. Like in a Kafka novel... by Kidbro · · Score: 5, Funny

    Welcome to the Flash Player 10.1 Forum
    Important: Do not use this forum to discuss the Flash Player 10 64-bit Linux prerelease or Flash Player 10 and earlier release players. Follow these links to discuss these topics:
    Flash Player 10 for 64-bit Linux forum

    Flash Player 10 for 64-bit Linux (Read Only)
    Welcome to the Flash Player 10 for 64-bit Linux Forum

    I'm not sure whether I should laugh or cry... but it reminds me of reading The Trial :)

    --
    May we live long and die out
  6. Re:This is why Flash must die. by Richard_at_work · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Having done a fair bit with HTML5 video over the past few weeks, I can safely say that although its looking good, and I enjoyed producing HTML5 video apps, its not a flash killer yet.

    They need to sort out the HTML5 subtitle standard, and someone needs to actually support it.

    They need to sort out the cue points standard, and someone needs to support it. (No, events fired every X ms or so is not enough)

    They need to eliminate cross browser issues with overlaying html over the video stream.

    They need to enable adaptive streaming.

    They need to do a lot more work, but what has been done so far is very nice.

  7. Re:Flash itself supports H.264 by joe_cot · · Score: 4, Informative

    ====* -- Joke

        O
        \|/ --- You
        / \

    His point was that the big feature for 10.1 was hardware acceleration for flash (and therefore h264), which Linux doesn't get. Linux gets nothing but downsides from this.

  8. Re:Adobe has one target market: by russotto · · Score: 4, Informative

    adobe is one of few major software vendors that has consistently kept their software suite going on mac, even through the bad times.

    IIRC, they considered abandoning the Mac back in the non-Jobs era, but the wailing from their customer base reached even their ears. Had they done so they might have managed to destroy Apple.

  9. Got an Education? by m509272 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Stupid comment, get an education. If you want to create your own Flash player you can do that. It is OPEN. Stop drinking the Apple Kool Aid without question.

    http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/

    http://flowplayer.org/

    http://www.swift-tools.net/Flash/

    http://www.swftools.com/tools-category.php?cat=968

    There are also dozens of tools that create Flash apps so you are not restricted to Adobe's tools either.

    1. Re:Got an Education? by datapharmer · · Score: 5, Insightful

      except that the standards published are always a few versions behind and in reality none of those players will play any of the most recent content reliably. Sure, they work for some simple stuff but calling them an open alternative is hardly fair. Sure, they could be if adobe published their intentions in advance but then they would lose their advantage. Same problem with PDF on the creation end. Sure, it is open, but if you want the most recent features in acrobat from a free or even paid alternative, too bad, they haven't been published yet.

      --
      Get a web developer
    2. Re:Got an Education? by dougmc · · Score: 4, Informative

      90% of the flash content on the web does not need any more than Flash 5-6

      [citation needed]

      I think youtube alone will barf on anything lower than Flash 8, and they've probably got more than 10% of the "flash content" (well, content that is displayed through flash) on the web right there.

    3. Re:Got an Education? by Andy+Dodd · · Score: 4, Informative

      While Hulu may require 10.0.22 for the newest features, it requires 10.x just to work at all.

      Critical components of Adobe's Flash implementation formerly used by Hulu (RTMPE) were never documented by Adobe, only a reverse engineered specification for RTMPE exists and anyone implementing that specification within the United States will get a DMCA takedown issued by Adobe.

      Hulu has since moved to an even more "super-secret" undocumented protocol, most likely with Adobe's cooperation.

      So no, Flash is not by any means open, when any attempt to create or distribute a fully compatible alternative within the United States will result in a DMCA takedown notice issued by Adobe.

      --
      retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
  10. nspluginwrapper by AusIV · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think it's worth pointing out that Ubuntu's repositories have always used 32-bit flash + nspluginwrapper even while 64-bit flash was available. I've never found either of these solutions to be particularly stable, but this doesn't mean 64-bit Linux is going without flash completely.

  11. New "feature" in 10.1: DRM by 200_success · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There is a new clause in the Flash 10.1 EULA that was not present in 10.0:

    7.6 Content Protection Technology. If you Use the Adobe Runtimes to access content that has been protected with Adobe Flash Media Rights Management Server or Flash Access software (“Content Protection”), in order to let you play the protected content, the Software may automatically request media usage rights and individualization rights from a rights server on the Internet, and may download and install required components of the Software, including any available Content Protection Updates. You can find more information on Content Protection at http://www.adobe.com/go/protected_content.

    You have to download a 3.3 MB PDF with 280 pages to find this kind of stuff. There's no telling how far these updates will go (remember TurboTax DRM?).