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Macromedia Flash for Unix out soon
shomon2 writes "Macromedia's web site has the news that "..versions of its Flash Player will be available free on 1 September for Linux, Sun Microsystems, Inc.'s Solaris, and Silicon Graphics Inc.'s Irix platforms." " Still worthing checking out SVG however.
There is an alternative to Macromedia Generator. And it's free: Swift Generator
I think you're right - QT is a very important piece when it comes to multimedia. Certainly a key component when you start talking about packages like Director and Premiere.
Perhaps I forgot about it because of my repressed anger from seeing that 'upgrade now' box everytime I play a movie on the web now...
how about after you put down the crack-pipe? the plugins allow you to see content, not restrict saving content. ever heard of the browsers cache? try getting your beloved saved-local content from there. sad to see a simple-minded fellow like yourself corrupting the minds of others.
Shockwave is the macromedia family of compressed and exported multimedia files. Contained in that family are a handful of different technologies with their respective players. Most highly penetrated player is the 'shockwave flash' player with a browser penetration of 70+ percent. Next is the 'shockwave director' player with penetration of 30+% (these numbers are nearly pulled out of my rear, but can easily be found at a variety of punditry sites). There is an Authorware shockwave player and I believe there was even a Freehand shockwave player at one point. Shockwave Director and Flash players are delivered together nowdays and most new computers, AOL CD's, etc have the players pre-installed.
Flash is the vector-based, quick loading format that is making some of the coolest looking websites out there. ie. http://www.balthaser.com/
Director, on the other hand, is much more full featured with a programming language and a mature set of facilities to handle a variety of multimedia and lightweight client/server things.
The Flash file format is open to the public as well as the source code to their player (well, that's some kind of licensing deal, almost positive it's not GNU-like)
-shaggy
what do you mean by that? you can play .dcr (shockwave director) and .swf (shockwave flash) files from your cache. That is, unless the author coded it so you couldn't. And it is the authors choice. Course, that doesn't mean it's MACRO's fault. >sad to see a simple-minded fellow like yourself >corrupting the minds of others. hmmm... bad day, huh? staring at a CLI all day will do it to ya... -shaggy
Your company must not be able to read.
Be enlightened here.
Macromedia is, of course, free to do whatever they want with their software. But as consumers, we are also free to decide what we use and what we don't use.
If you care about free software or open standards, I'd recommend staying away from Macromedia products and formats as much as possible. There are several open alternatives available for creating multimedia content for the web. And if they don't do what you need yet, get involved in their open standardization processes.
Dreamweaver produces the cleanest, most versatile HTML. GAC[tm] (Get A Clue).
Frankly, I've never run Shockwave. I have a strict policy of not running Active X components on the systems that I use. I don't feel that my web experience is lacking by not having used it. Then again, I often use lynx. I use the web to get information (or what passes for information on the web) and, with all due respect for your site, dancing baloney just dosn't cut it for me.
But I see your point that there are users who want it. In that sense it is good to have it available.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
an author can keep the .dcr or .swf files from being saved with that little remote, but there is nothing an author can do to keep it from being pulled from the cache and saved. try it. i am a big fan of macromedia, and i am thrilled to see them add more plugin support for the unix world (irix). if they port their apps to the unix/linux platform, i will thankfully have no need for my win partition...
i just hope that if someone works at a school, they take time to educate themselves before trying to educate others.
-griZly
will SVG be able to take advantage of openGL cards? I'm Just looking for a standardized way of doing animations for openGL without having the use a rendering engine.
- daniel
- daniel
Turn off your computer and go outside
Where in that article does it say it's Flash 3 and not Flash 4?
Flash is a very nice tool as it is now. I wouldn't be surprised if Macromedia just worked an "Export to SVG" option into a future version of Flash. Personally, I think a visual product deserves a visual creation tool. I think emacs would be very unsuited for this kind of work. However, I do agree that Flash's being proprietary is a pain.
Dreamweaver really sucks. It's one of the worst WYSIWYG web authoring tools I've ever seen. There's so much crap in the html code produced by MD. JoJo
Because Irix people like glossy stuff :-).
Seriously, Irix is going to be around for a long time to come, since SGI is not planning on moving their MIPS hardware to Linux - just their new Intel stuff.
D
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Actually, flash is almost necessary for good
entertainment websites like the one I work for.
If linux is ever going to make it on the desktop,
it is going to need as many multimedia plugins
as possible. Right now just about everything is
released for linux much later, if at all. This
has to change for users to *want* to use linux
for morethan the fact that it is not microsoft.
-Dave
I fully agree with your list. (though, as stated in my previus post, I would add Macromedia Authorware also to the list. Ok, it's more of a cult program compared to Director). I always thought that Macromedia and Adobe made generally the most interesting and best programs for my job (multimedia design, web sites and the like). Well, who knows some talented and committed group will begin working on a GnomeDirector or something like it. Dream on... Tom
1. Dreamweaver
2. Flash
3. Director
4. Fireworks
5. Photoshop
6. Illustrator
7. Freehand
8. Premiere
9. Acrobat
10. Internet Explorer
Note that all except #10 are Macromedia or Adobe, and pretty crucial to doing professional web work. As for IE, well, if you design for the web, you have to have IE to see how most folks see your pages.
Now if they would release Macromedia Web Player for linux that would be really nice.
http://freshmeat.net/appindex/1998/09/02/904768013 .html
Generator has run on Solaris for a long time now. We are looking at additional ports as well. -David(from Macromedia)
I have been using Flash on Linux and Solaris since
March 16th...(directory creation date). Works great!
Adults are obsolete children. - Dr. Seuss
We use Flash Generator for Solaris at CNN. See it in action HERE. You do have to have Flash of course to see it.
- Vincit qui patitur.
I'm stupid, and I don't know, so I thought I'd ask. What is the difference between a Flash player, and a Shockwave player?
Beuler, Beuler, Anybody, Beuler...
Thanks
Brian Seppanen
Minister of Information and Propaganda
Area 54 The Secret Government Disco Labs Provo
Thanks much. You are a gentleman and a scholar and smell good too.
[0] - and yes, I do have one at home too. Sure would be nice to use it. Linux still doesn't run on everyting.
-fester(ing pissed)
-'fester
Hack on NetBSD, and your code runs on over 20 architectures!
cross-compilers: i386-linux i386-linuxglibc1 i386-netbsdelf, powerpc-netbsd sparc-netbsdelf sparc64-netbsd. If you would, do make install in a subdir. Get cross compilers from anoncvs, modules available with 'cvs co CVSROOT'.
http://netbsd.fi.gw.com/
Having a generator option for NT only is ridiculous! My company has been pushing macromedia on a UNIX port of the Generator tools for over a year now to no avail. All of the salesdroids say is 'We will refer your request to the technicians' and thats it.
To bad, generator running on any UNIX would be awesome and increase their market share in a major way. They need to get with it ASAP.
There are many remaining problems and unanswered questions about the SVG spec. The author of Gill (Gnome Illustrator) has made a detailed criticism of the font handling; the main problem is the difficult of specifying fonts exactly. I posed a question about where scientific notation could be used, and have not received a concrete answer. Unfortunately, although the SVG editor does make an effort to reply to queries on the public mailing list, the discussion that counts is going on in private, as is normal for W3C. Non-members only see changes made when a new draft is issued (which occurs at irregular intervals).
The new news is that Flash 4 Player is now available for Solaris, Linux and Irix. Regards, David, Macromedia
Sure, I'll try.
Adobe proposed PGML, but it was basically the PDF imaging model in XML. Too complicated and non-reusable to use in a browser engine.
Microsoft was designing Office2000 to use HTML/XML format for their documents.
HTML+CSS can almost completely reproduce all the info/design information in Office except for a few items, one of them is Vector graphics.
So MS invented Vector Markup Language which is a XML+CSS representation for Vector graphics that allows you to manipulate shapes using style sheets, mucho superior to the Adobe solution.
The W3 consortium took both PGML and VML, and created SVG. SVG is mostly VML concepts with some PGML syntax.
SVG is superior to VML, but it's more like a superset.
And no one says that Microsoft innovates?
BTW, SVG cannot replace Flash. SVG is 1-2 years from widespread deployment, unlike Flash. SVG is missing a time component for animation. SVG would need to use Javascript/DOM to do animation/tweening/etc, but there is no standard in place, and it's doubtful it would be real-time like Flash's specialized engine. (Flash handles streaming and sound too)
Flash also has a killer authoring environment and library of special effects.
SVG will definately make the web look ALOT nicer and remove the need for all those little GIFs to do rounded corners, boxes, and drop shadows.
However, it won't replace Flash anytime soon, especially gived Flash's widespread deployment.
The other option for SVG animation if HTML+TIME or SMIL, but those also wouldn't be able to do tweening. See www.w3.org for more details.
I know flash is already available for linux...cause im using it right now... odd
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http://balambiris.ne.mediaone.net
Flash for Linux has been out at least since May... Why are they only announcing it now?
That stuff is so unstable I don't care
My experience with the Solaris Flash plugin is less than delightful. Rather, no sound happens, and I've had very little success with anything dynamic. The only things that appear to work are the example pages from Flash's home page, and only some of the content works (at least with the version I'm using). I believe the only thing that I really saw work was the tabs on a tabbed window.
It'd be nice if they get this all out. JavaScript is quite clunky, and Flash has a nice solution. Unfortunately, it has been Win32 centric (hopefully until now..)
--
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
so nice to see macromedia about a year behind itself. The release is for Flash 3 which has been available for win/mac for almost a year. Thier public beta of Flash3 for Linux is dated 11/17/98, and they just now releasing a non-beta version? http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/index .cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&P2_P latform=Linux&P3_Browser_Version=Netscape4 What about Flash 4, dammit. get on the ball macromedia!
- daniel
- daniel
Turn off your computer and go outside
My only guess is that they are officially moving out of beta to a general release. Flash player has been available for Linux and Solaris since November of last year.
They also mention a source liscense, so I guess they are releasing some sort of source now, not sure if this too is already available.
Now we just need a Shockwave player.
Q.
Anyone know the salient differences between these two proposed standards? What's curious is that both have Microsoft participation.
Who do we need to petion to get the Content Creation tools ported to Linux? I'd be more than willing to draw my Credit Card for a Linux based version of the flash _authoring_ tool.
With the GIMP here already for a while, and CorelDRAW coming soon-ish, there wouldn't be any reason to boot into M$-OSses ever again - even for non-Mac designers.
avi bercovich, bercovic@swi.psy.uva.nl
Subject: Re: flash for SGI computers.
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 17:50:48 -0400
From: David Mendels
To: xxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx
Check out our web site in a few weeks -;)
At 01:56 PM 8/18/99 -0500, you wrote:
>It's surprising to me you have a linux and sun port, but no Silicon
>Graphics version (IRIX 5.3, 6.2, or 6.3).
>I tried downloading the linux version, but it didnt work (probably cause
>its made for x86 machines running linux). Anyways, its real
>disappointing to have such a nice computer (supped up Indy) at work and
>not be able to see pages with flash..
>
>-Isaac Johnson
>xxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx
>
I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going.
I thought that SGI was dumping ther IRIX for Linux? Why are they going to make flash for them now? I think it is cool that there will be flash for Linux, and it will be free. but will it be another one of those partally free things again, like the crypiled Wordperfect8 I have?
Only 'flamers' flame!
A kind soul on the flash.newsgroup gave me this e-mail adress: wish-flash@macromedia.com I suggest that anybody genuinely prepared to pull his/her credit card for a native Linux port of the flash authoring tool send them a nicely worded request for a linux port. kind regards, avi bercovich, bercovic@swi.psy.uva.nl
...for those who are listening...
This link will give a bit more info on this possible counterpart or even competitor to flash.
I think it would be a great alternative, being all into css/dom and w3 standards in general. SVG is coming together quite nicely, and already supports animation, scripting, filters, rotated text, as can be seen from the many (mostly java based) viewers around. The cool thing about it is that unlike flash, you don't need to use a proprietary point and click development tool to do stuff in SVG. Instead you just muck about in emacs like you're s'posed to.
Flash is really nice, don't want to put it down, but it's just not fiddly enough for me.
Come on Hemos, this is old news. Is this really Roblimo in disguise? Hum. Flash isn't all that fun anyhow. Shockwave is the good stuff so I can play all those silly little games around on the web.
~Kevin
:)
Be and Real just announced they're bringing RealPlayer to BeOS
SVG has no time component. Javascript/DOM would be needed to animate SVG style-sheet properties, but there is no standard for doing that, or even if the properties are "live" or not. (if you modify a property, it makes an immediate change) Inline SVG mixed with HTML in a Gecko-like engine probably couldn't handle high-speed animation, just look how jump simple LAYER animation is right now. Finally, Flash does streaming and sound, and has an excellent authoring tool.
Q. What product do we least want to see ported to Linux, Alex?
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
Damn HTML format.
SVG has no time component. Javascript/DOM would
be needed to animate SVG style-sheet properties,
but there is no standard for doing that, or
even if the properties are "live" or not.
(if you modify a property, it makes an immediate change)
Inline SVG mixed with HTML in a Gecko-like engine probably couldn't handle high-speed animation, just look how jump simple LAYER animation is right now.
Finally, Flash does streaming and sound, and has an excellent authoring tool.
I see a lot of stuff like:
"Who cares?"
"Name the product we *least* want ported to Linux."
"Flash sux coz it's not free...errr.."
Um, excuse me guys, isn't this exactly the kind of thing we *do* want? We need more apps, even the little ones like this from the BIG names to be ported over to Linux if it's ever going to take hold.
Nobody says that every god$^@$ package that runs on Linux has to be free, open and GPL'd
Until then, I'll await with baited breath to see if it'll supports Flash 4 and maybe even sound this time?
Macromedia! Port everything you've got over to the penguin!
Blech. Signatures.