Adobe Announces Plans To Abandon Flash On Linux

[Alejandro Nova]

I just read TFA from Adobe and I understand all. It's not that Adobe is dropping support; they know that Linux upgrade cycles are extremely short compared to Windows / Mac OS X, they will maintain Flash 11.2 basically to fulfill the demands of Debian Stable / RHEL / SLES users, and they will attempt to move everyone in Linux to PPAPI.

I even APPLAUD this move. Linux are always the guys who start the trends, and that will be preserved. The first ones with a 64 bit Flash plugin, the first ones with the next-gen plugin API.

I see Adobe hasn't defined how it's going to distribute the plugin, and that's because nothing but Chrome supports PPAPI. If Firefox doesn't want to support PPAPI, I bet 1,000 internets that Webkit will support it, and every Linux user is going to ditch Firefox and run Konqueror + KWebkitPart, Rekonq, or Midori with PPAPI support, instead.

[PsynoKhi0]

5 years of support for 11.2 is pretty decent...
I wonder how the new Chrome-only version will handle stand-alone Flash stuff though (Machinarium comes to mind).

[Hamish Wilson]

5 years of support for 11.2 is pretty decent...
I wonder how the new Chrome-only version will handle stand-alone Flash stuff though (Machinarium comes to mind).

I assume that is actually separate from the Flash browser plugin, and comes with flash bundled on its own. I assume.

[e8hffff]

What's Java got to do with anything?

Posters were talking about Java being a Black Box as well, which was the excuse used for Firefox devs to say they didn't want Goggle's Flash wrapper.

[Delgarde]

I'd be happy is Java was dropped too. We have HTML5 and Javascript to get most things done. If there's anything lacking then it should be added the HTML or JS or the browser backbone tot he system.

Doesn't help with existing content. It's easy to say "use HTML and Javascript", but that's not very useful advice when the application is already built in Java or Flash.

[Prescience500]

If flash is dying, then the question is what video/audio codecs are used? Vorbis is better than Mp3, but not better than AAC Professional. If/when ghost comes out, it'll simply blow all of the competition out of the water. Video on the other hand could be a problem. h.364 is better than VP8 and the successor to h.364 is being worked on. We need a better open source and patent free video codec so we can comfortably dominate and then the html5 conversion would be far less messy. Our hopes seem to lie with daala.

https://xiph.org/daala/

http://wiki.xiph.org/Daala

[crazycheese]

Give me a break, what a fucking hyperbole. Adobe did not announce any plans to "abandon Flash on Linux". They want to phase out the old plugin API, over the course of 5 years.

I can only recommend everyone to use adblock on Phoronix. Michael does not deserve any money for bullshit like this.

Well, what is "flash"? It is a plugin.
What is "phase out the old plugin API, over the course of 5 years." - it is "phase out flash over the course of 5 years."

What is "phase out"? AMD is phasing out cards, how? No driver updates. And when no new cards are produced - no newer driver and * it is same as abadoning *

Why is "old plugin API" = "flash"? Because they stated they are not going to develop "new plugin API", but make google do that.

This is why adobe is going to *abadon* *flash* on Linux.

[crazycheese]

If flash is dying, then the question is what video/audio codecs are used? Vorbis is better than Mp3, but not better than AAC Professional.
https://xiph.org/daala/

http://wiki.xiph.org/Daala

Vorbis is already better, even if it *were* equal to mp3. Vorbis is free. AAC Professional? Seriosly? You need more than *professional* in your title to compensate for that price.

[stan]

Ubuntu, Fedora and Suse pride themselves on having only FOSS software. But why don't they include GNASH and/or LIGHTSPARK in their default installations? They don't have to install US-patented codecs, just the players. It seems that these distros are actually pushing people to install Adobe Flash rather than the FOSS alternatives.

[RealNC]

AAC Professional? Seriosly? You need more than *professional* in your title to compensate for that price.

How about "Ultimate"? It worked for Redmond.