*Question: Adobe has issued Last flashplayer for Linux - what's next?
 

On Adobe's website, get flash page (Linux) there is a 'Note'
" NOTE: Adobe Flash Player 11.2 will be the last version to target Linux as a supported platform. Adobe will continue to provide security backports to Flash Player 11.2 for Linux. "

First, I can't believe, though I should expect it by now, that a company would or could entrench itself in everything, eg, youtube, rtube, any news source, ads, banners, A/V etc and then, just pull the plug on at least a Third of the worlds internet users, ie, Linux Users. Worst is, i bet the selfish *%&$s' won't release code to the opensource community, either... Hope I'm wrong on that.

WTF?
What do we do? the current version 11.2.202.236 burns up memory and kills Mozilla, Aurora 15 and now 16 on openSuSE and KDE 4.8.4...

Any insight out there?

with respect,
Landis.

Switch to Google Chrome. Google Chrome has Google's fork of Adobe's Flash player built right into it. That Flash player is being actively maintained, supported, updated and developed by Google.

Personally, I think Google should be fined into oblivion for this shamelessly monopolistic under-the-table deal that they made with Adobe.

And, of course, tell all websites that give you the option that you want to watch their videos in HTML5 format. For Youtube, you can join their HTML5 Beta.

dugan, thanks...
I F*ing HATE google, and hate, even more they 'own' youtube..
What are us 'opensource' people going to do?
Chrome is ok, but it's Google...

Hmmmm,
Landis.

For the record, this is Google's fault. Just look at Adobe's Flash roadmap:

I can't see why this is Google's fault. Yes, they are the only ones that currently have implemented the Pepper API, but this API is free.
Mozilla and other browser developers just have decided not to implement it, for what reason ever.

Anyways, since Adobe decided that there will be no Flash for Linux in the future and, much more important, that there will be no Flash for mobile devices they basically rendered Flash obsolete themselves. It is just a matter of time that Flash content will vanish and be replaced with something different.

Sadly in many places that will be an "app" for devices and Silverlight for PCs. So, bye bye to more video for Linux users.
I've said it before but I'll add to this thread too: As horrible as Flash is it's the only web video solution for commercial content that's available on Linux. I don't count HTML5 because TV companies will never use that.

You realize that the Windows equivalent would be Microsoft paying off Adobe to make Flash dependent on ActiveX, which only works on Internet Explorer but which other browser vendors can theoretically implement if they want to, right?

Silverlight is Microsoft only, it doesn't work on Android or iOS. Every company that doesn't want to maintain two different versions of their content (for embedded devices and desktop/laptop) will avoid Silverlight.
The future will see a lot of people that have a home-PC (and be it only for use as HTPC) and embedded devices. This is not an either ... or thing. And if people want to see their content they want it to look the same on all of their devices.
So HTML5 is the only real option.

Nope, this analogy does not work. The Pepper API is neither platform dependent nor patented, it is an open API. Everyone is free to implement it, this is not the case with ActiveX. So if one team of browser developers decides to not implement an open API it can hardly be the fault of a third party.

It has been proven already by Netflix, LoveFilm and others that they can and will provide two lots of content. They need to do so now anyhow to provide for Apple devices so it's no change there. Read about the recent move of LoveFilm (Amazon's UK online film distribution partner) to see one example.
As far as I see there is not a single paid-for content provider in the UK which does not use Silverlight and the US will move that way because of studio demand or because of Flash being killed off.
HTML5 will not ever be used for paid-for or licensed content. End of story, won't happen. Only a solution which provides DRM will ever be accepted. I know the record industry bent but they didn't have an infrastructure built for them already -- the film industry does and it's Apps and Silverlight. Flash has been used because it's there, cheap and relatively universal but if it dies then Silverlight will replace it.
An example of what I'm talking about:
http://blog.lovefilm.com/uncategoriz...lverlight.html

Those anti-piracy arguments are useless. Long before the content will come to Amazon or Netflix there are already high quality copies of the films spread wide over the Internet. I know that they have to do what the studios demand, but here one can see the hypocrisy in such arguments.
You can't stop piracy, making it more difficult for the honest customer will not help them at all. Sooner or later they have to realize that.
With Netflix this is even more hypocrisy, there are mediaboxes available that run on Linux and offer Netflix streaming. So here the anti-piracy argument is even more useless.

I completely agree, and I hope my predictions are wrong, but when you read articles like that I feel it's the only sensible conclusion.
We're actually lucky in the UK in that two or three of the TV companies went Silverlight but due to problems with it on Windows (amongst other things) they dropped it in favour of Flash. BBC (our national broadcaster) went with Silverlight for their downloads but Flash for online video due to pressure from Free Software advocates and other criticism of Silverlight. BBC do have an iApp as well and I think an Android one as they're legally bound to let as many people watch as they can.
I know that Norway's national broadcaster also uses Flash for online video but I have no idea of their future strategy, I think they have an iApp too.
I think Linux's only hope is Valve's Steam raising Linux user numbers enough that the video providers feel compelled to offer a solution.

There was an HTML5 DRM proposal that lasted about a week...

That was a tough call, and I'm still not sure which side I'm on despite it offering a possible solution to people like me who want to watch video on Linux. What I do know is that some of the opponents seemed not to understand what it was for and seemed to think that HTML5 would be used by commercial concerns without it.

I, personally don't know if it's 'google's fault', but being that I Dislike google's code and practices, it's entertaining to blame them just the same... : )

Landis.

Thanks for the link... I've been actively converting All my site, owned by or maintained by me to HTML5 and CSS3... I like them both... cool elements eg, 'rotate', include php5 .. nice.

Thanks again,
Landis.