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Adobe Revives Flash for Firefox on Linux After Four-Year Lag

posted by takyon on Monday September 26 2016, @10:42PM   Printer-friendly
from the flashy-future dept.

CoolHand writes:

PCWorld reports that Adobe has decided to start supporting Flash player on Linux again. This seems to entail mostly security updates for now and not many new features. Also, Flash seems to be on the decline. However, it is still likely welcome news for those required to use sites with Flash, and who do not want to use Chrome browser..

Adobe just pulled a major about-face. After axing the NPAPI Flash plugin used by Firefox and other browsers on Linux in 2012, Adobe has decided to begin updating it again and to keep it updated after the previously announced 2017 end-of-life date.

The NPAPI version of Flash for Linux, used by Firefox and other browsers, has been stuck at version 11.2 since 2012. Adobe also axed its Adobe Reader and Adobe AIR software for Linux. Adobe's been providing security updates for Flash since then, but promised it would stop doing so in 2017.

The PPAPI Flash plugin for Linux, which is included with Google Chrome, has been kept up to date with the latest features. But many browsers, such as Firefox, must use the NPAPI plugin instead of the PPAPI plugin

Adobe just had a sudden change of heart and decided to update the NPAPI plugin for Linux. The NPAPI Flash plugin for Linux is about to catapult from version 11.2 to version 23 and will stay current with the other Flash plugins going forward. "We have done this significant change to improve security and provide additional mitigation to the Linux community," reads Adobe's blog post on the subject.

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  • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Tuesday September 27 2016, @03:15AM

    by Pino P (4721) on Tuesday September 27 2016, @03:15AM (#406833) Journal

    What's "similar content" to, say, Weebl and Bob? Or to the Flash games on Newgrounds? It's too bad Mozilla Shumway got cancelled.

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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday September 27 2016, @06:10PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday September 27 2016, @06:10PM (#407054) Journal

    *groan* You're sounding like my wife, and her flash games.

    I had her weaned off of Windows, and she was quite happy on Ubuntu, until Adobe and Canonical repeatedly screwed up her flash games. She purchased the parts, built a new computer, and installed Windows 7 because those silly games were that important to her. Weebl and Bob I know nothing about. Are they really unique?

    TBH, I never *really* liked flash anyway. It always seemed an expensive way to package content, of any kind. Living in Outback, Nowhere, with limited bandwidth, I am very much aware that flash eats bandwidth. Similar content delivered by HTML5 uses less bandwidth. And, less CPU resources as well!

    --
    ICE is having a Pretti Good season.

    • (Score: 2) by Pino P on Wednesday September 28 2016, @12:59AM

      by Pino P (4721) on Wednesday September 28 2016, @12:59AM (#407143) Journal

      Homestar Runner and Weebl and Bob are vector animations. There are two ways to present a vector animation: client-side rendering or pre-rendering.

      Client-side rendering
      Both SWF and HTML5 are capable of rendering a vector animation in real time on the client's machine. Since day one, SWF has had a built-in ability to play vector animations. HTML didn't gain this ability until recently, when HTML Canvas became usable; even then, HTML requires a site-provided player script written in JavaScript. And I'm not aware of any off-the-shelf timeline-based HTML5 animation authoring tools available as free software, as freeware, or for purchase. (Manually inputting coordinates in a text editor doesn't count.) Though a used copy of Flash can create SWF, and its successor Adobe Animate can export to HTML5, Adobe Animate is exclusive to the Creative Cloud rental platform.
      Pre-rendering
      A vector animation can be rendered to video compressed in .mp4 and .webm formats. Both Flash and HTML5 can play video. If you've seen Homestar Runner or Weebl and Bob on YouTube, it's pre-rendered. The drawbacks of pre-rendering are twofold: it bloats the download size by a factor of ten in my tests, and it loses all interactivity.