First Adobe Air, Now Adobe is looking to drop Flash unless you use Chrome

[dequire]

...Adobe is discontinuing its Flash Player for Linux as a standalone download as of version 11.2, due later this year, it announced on Wednesday. After that point, new versions of the Flash Player browser plugin for Linux will only be available as part of Google Chrome.

If we have Open Java, why not Open Flash? Enough is enough already.

Luckily for me, I use Minitube, which does not use flash. But seriously, enough is enough already.

Link from PC World: For Flash on Linux, Chrome Will Be Users' Only Choice

[SteveRiley]

From the article...

Adobe does plan to provide a debug player implementation of the Flash Player browser plugin on Linux, it said, and will update its whitepaper on the topic once more details are available.

Can we read this as an admission by Adobe that Linux is perhaps the better platform for building Flash content?

Also...

Adobe has been working with Google to develop a new API for hosting plugins within the browser...with an eye toward replacing the current Netscape plugin API (NPAPI) currently used by Flash Player. Called “PPAPI,” or “Pepper,” the new API “aims to provide a layer between the plugin and browser that abstracts away differences between browser and operating system implementations." Adobe and Google have now created a “Pepper” implementation of Flash Player for all x86/64 platforms supported by the Google Chrome browser.

This raises a couple questions.

* With Google pushing HTML 5 and WebM, why this sudden desire to create an Adobe-specific plugin? Who benefits more from this seemingly unholy alliance?
* Sounds to me like "Pepper" would allow Adobe to create a single Flash player that would work cross-platform, thus reducing the development resources required for maintaining a separate Linux Flash player. So why cut us off?

[sithlord48]

don't worry flash will be dead soon enuff ...its been crapping up the internet way to long already

[SecretCode]

The way that websites that only rendered correctly on IE are dead? As in, "never" - we still have some of those in SA. Banks have mostly seen the light, but parts of the revenue service e-filing site don't work without windows.

Flash will still be around in 10 years somewhere, and still prevalent 5 years from now.

[mmmmna]

html 5 for me.

[GreyGeek]

Until HTML5 can play video adequately one can always install "LightSpark". It is a flash clone and is in the repository (At least Precise's repository), otherwise you can follow the advice here:
http://www.unixmen.com/lightspark-a-...tu-fedora-rpm/

[dequire]

Thanks, GreyGeek. I'll check that out. There are two other apps that play Youtube without Flash: Miro and Minitube.

Also, a nice follow-up from OStatic: Why Adobe Is Wrong to Restrict Flash Updates for Linux Users

[silviucc]

The worst part of it is for 64bit OS users because Google Chrome 64bit does not bundle flashplayer,

[Goeroeboeroe]

I don't think Adobe will get a headache from it, but for me this was a reason to remove every link to anything about flash from my site with tutorials about sitebuilding. Did that before with Air when Adobe stopped support for that on LInux.