Chrome only future for Flash on Linux

By +Frank B.
in Linux

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Grand Master

ichi

Posted
Posted

We are talking about browsers here.

Then I don't understand what I quoted above about removing flash on smartphones not being a problem :huh:

If not using Chrome and Flash, how will you be able to enjoy embedded music and movies on the web?

If you were in dire need, and for whatever reason didn't want to use Chrome, and also for whatever reason you didn't want to use Chromium, and also for whatever reason the old Flash plugin (which Adobe will still be supporting for some years, just not releasing new versions) stopped working... in such extreme scenario, you still could run your Windows browser of choice on Wine with the Windows version of the Flash plugin.

Years ago I had to play an online flash based MMORPG running Firefox on Wine because back then the Linux plugin was some major versions behind. Other than the windows styled widgets not matching the aesthetics of my Linux desktop it all worked perfectly fine.

Grand Master

.Neo

Posted
Posted
Adobe Flash is a media plug-in that plays a variety of media formats and games - without Adobe Flash, you are left with a less functional browser.

Flash is by no means the only way of watching media content or even the most important one. Flash is becoming less and less important with every passing day.

Mentor

ArialBlue

Posted
Posted

Flash is by no means the only way of watching media content or even the most important one. Flash is becoming less and less important with every passing day.

How else can you watch h264 videos and listen to MP3s on a Desktop Linux?

Grand Master

Gerowen

Posted
Posted

To be totally honest, there's not a lot of websites that I visit that require the use of Flash. More and more web-sites are using HTML5 or other comparable technologies to provide rich content without the need for 3rd party plugins. And this isn't a sales pitch for HTML5, I seriously don't visit that many websites that use flash.

Grand Master

ichi

Posted
Posted

How else can you watch h264 videos and listen to MP3s on a Desktop Linux?

With any of the available media players: mplayer, totem, kaffeine, vlc, amarok, clementine, banshee, audacious... they all play any media format you can play on windows.

The two programs I mentioned above, Minitube and Musictube, are playing the h.264 video streams straight from Youtube bypassing flash entirely.

Exception to this is mobile Linux OS which are built with media in mind (more optimized for media and can take full advantage of the hardware's media capabilities), but then again they are not relevant to this topic.

Care to elaborate how a mobile Linux OS is more optimized for media than a desktop Linux OS? Only thing that comes to mind would be h.264 hardware acceleration, and that's available as well on desktop Linux.

Mentor

ArialBlue

Posted
Posted

There are H.264 and MP3 players for Linux...

With any of the available media players: mplayer, totem, kaffeine, vlc, amarok, clementine, banshee, audacious... they all play any media format you can play on windows.

The two programs I mentioned above, Minitube and Musictube, are playing the h.264 video streams straight from Youtube bypassing flash entirely.

Care to elaborate how a mobile Linux OS is more optimized for media than a desktop Linux OS? Only thing that comes to mind would be h.264 hardware acceleration, and that's available as well on desktop Linux.

Is Flash the only way play those formats on OS X and Windows? No. Well, the same goes for Linux.

You are intentionally confusing browsers with media players.

Grand Master

ichi

Posted
Posted

You are intentionally confusing browsers with media players.

I think you are intentionally mixing both in an attempt to make a point. You asked how you could play h.264 and mp3 on desktop Linux without flash, and we gave you an answer.

Just in case you didn't know, media players such as mplayer or gstreamer also provide browser plugins to play embedded content, so we are still talking about browsers if that's what you want to talk about.

Let's put it this way: you have the same media capabilities on Linux as you have on Windows.

And then, as I pointed above, even in the hypothetical situation that some vital browser plugin became completely unavailable on Linux and there was no native working alternative, you could still resort to running a Windows browser with Wine with whatever Windows plugin you need.

Community Regular

singularity87

Posted
Posted

Adobe is still a commercial company and if it turns out that the resources put into keeping Flash on Linux alive isn't worth its while it will get axed. That's what I think happened here.

I can run Safari in 64-bit while using 32-bit plugins. Why won't other browsers go the same route?

I think that's a feature of OS X that 32-bit and 64-bit play so nicely, not so much on Windows and Linux.

Grand Master

ichi

Posted
Posted

I think that's a feature of OS X that 32-bit and 64-bit play so nicely, not so much on Windows and Linux.

I haven't tried myself since I run 32bits Linux, but AFAIK you can run 32 bits NPAPI plugins on 64 bits browsers using nspluginwrapper. Maybe it's not as nice as in OSX, I don't know, but it should work anyway.

  • singularity87
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Grand Master

.Neo

Posted
Posted

You are intentionally confusing browsers with media players.

You asked a question about how else (besides a browser) to play movies and mp3s on Linux. You got your answer.

My Mac supports Flash perfectly, does that mean I use Safari to watch movies and play music with? No.

Grand Master

The_Decryptor Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted
I think that's a feature of OS X that 32-bit and 64-bit play so nicely, not so much on Windows and Linux.

It's the "Fat Binaries", where you can put 32 and 64bit code within the same file, and then load either version when you want it.

Linux and Windows on the other hand can't do that, you need separate binaries for each architecture, so in the Firefox case you'd need both 32bit and 64bit versions (When an official one exists) installed to be able to run 32bit plugins with a 64bit host (or 64bit plugins with a 32bit host)

Rising Star

@Leo

Posted
Posted

Microsoft DTV-DVD cannot play H.264 outside of the Bluray/HDDVD spec, which is perfectly inside of the H.264 spec. If you would have watched more than Apple trailers, you'd know.

And another moron to fall for the "MKV=Piracy" bull****. I guess all my rips for personal use are also piracy. Oh wait, you are probably from the US. -.-

Community Regular

singularity87

Posted
Posted

I haven't tried myself since I run 32bits Linux, but AFAIK you can run 32 bits NPAPI plugins on 64 bits browsers using nspluginwrapper. Maybe it's not as nice as in OSX, I don't know, but it should work anyway.

I remember that now. I think I'm thinking of some weird OS X kernel arrangements - 64-bit apps on a 32-bit kernel. Don't know if Safari could use nspluginwrapper (or indeed any browser not on Linux)

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