Flash, Finally

[rfunk]

As noted at LWN, Adobe has finally announced the official release of the Flash 9 player for Linux. The last release for Linux was Flash 7; there was no Flash 8 for Linux, so much of the modern Flash-based web content, especially videos, has been unavailable to Linux people for a long time. (There were a couple of betas of the Flash 9 player in fall, but now we have the real thing.)

For a long time I was a Flash hater, and it still doesn't take much for Flash to annoy me. It bogs down the computer, it adds unwanted visual (and sometimes audible) noise to whatever I'm trying to read, and occasionally it crashes my browser. And these things can't be fixed by the programming community because Adobe (previously Macromedia) keeps it binary-only proprietary software, not allowing programmers outside the company to improve the code. This results in another problem, that a Flash player doesn't come with Linux like everything else I use does. So with the various problems, I tend not to have it enabled by default. Often I don't even install the plugin in my main browser (Konqueror), while still installing it in an alternate browser (Firefox). Or I might install it but tell the browser to allow it only for vertain domains. When I use Firefox, the FlashBlock extension is essential, since it allows me to only run the Flash that I want to run.

Despite its problems, here are three reasons that Flash is worthwhile for me:
Pandora - music player organized by musical similarity (or similarity to my taste)
YouTube - videos depicting such essentials as treadmill power-pop
Homestar Runner - well, mainly Strongbad answering his mail

Comments

[dachte.livejournal.com]

Have you seen NoScript? It blocks javascript too, and lets you toggle it's blockitude on a per-site basis.

NoScript

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

I think I've heard of it, but haven't used it. Of course, since Konqueror is my main browser I only bother with a few Firefox extensions.

I've learned to stop worrying and love (well, accept) the javascript; it's both useful and open, even though it has the power to be annoying in the wrong hands. And in these days of AJAX it's a necessity on most site, so it's more annoying to disable javascript by default than to enable it by default.

For similar reasons I'm starting to tone down my aversion to cookies, especially session cookies.

[the-shampoo.livejournal.com]

I have recently converted to YouTube-ism....
but I have been a long time follower of the Church of Homestar Runner.

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

The rest of the Homestar Runner cast is just annoying to me, but I like Strongbad.

[the-shampoo.livejournal.com]

I love Strongbad and Homestar Runner both.....but everyone else annoys me. I enjoy how Strongbad can create new words, like Burninate.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I never had trouble with any of those sites. Let me see what sort of flash I was using . . .

Ahh . . . closed source, that's why. Well, I suppose that while I am wildly in favor of open source software, I'll use the occasional piece of closed source if I must (and for pandora, I'll call that a must).

[rfunk.livejournal.com]

I think YouTube might work with Flash 7; I know the other two do. But Google Video is an example of one that requires 8 or higher. The Linux Flash 7 has problems with audio/video sync, so I think that's where YouTube has issues.

I'm running the first beta of Flash 9 to listen to Pandora, and after a few songs the stream stops until I reload the page; it also seems very sensitive to whatever else I'm doing on the machine. I hope those problems are gone in the final release.

Of course, if it were open source, those problems would've been gone within a week after release.

[anivair.livejournal.com]

I must be using that, then, because my synching is never right.