Penguin.SWF

The beta of Flash Player 10.1 is available for download via labs.adobe.com. For this beta release, there is only a 32-bit plugin available for Linux (64-bit users will still need to use the previously released alpha version).

Bugs can be reported and tracked here.

Posted by Mike Melanson at 12:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (34)

Check out this press release from earlier this week at Adobe MAX regarding the forthcoming Adobe Flash Player version 10.1 -- GPU-Accelerated Netbooks from HP, Lenovo and Samsung Support full Flash Player:

The combination of NVIDIA GPUs and Adobe Flash Player 10.1 enables device manufacturers to deliver uncompromised Web browsing of rich applications, interactive content and HD video with substantially decreased power consumption. With the support of the NVIDIA GeForce®, NVIDIA ION™ and Tegra™ products users will be able to enjoy a much smoother viewing experience when accessing rich content built with the Flash Platform including HD and SD video from popular sites like Hulu.com or YouTube.

In answer to any other questions regarding this feature: The above is what the press release says so that's what I'm allowed to pass along.

Posted by Mike Melanson at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

Adobe recently released a new Flash Player version for all supported platforms (including the 64-bit Linux alpha) which addresses a number of important security issues. I suspect that by now, the update has propagated through most distributions' package management systems. If your Flash Player version (see here) is less than 10.0.32.18, do consider upgrading soon. (After all, we don't wish to undermine the platform's rock-solid reputation for security.)

See the sidebar for download locations.

In other news, as you can imagine, today's xkcd comic made the rounds in the office. That's good stuff; there are layers of meaning behind those pithy stick figures. I guess this would be a good time to link back to my post about hardware acceleration in Flash on Linux and invite another round of questions that are already clearly answered in that post.

Posted by Mike Melanson at 5:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (35)

I don't mind telling you that I'm a little nervous about this business of Debian switching to EGLIBC. I know, it's supposed to be binary compatible and it shouldn't matter to application developers. Does that include developers of closed source binaries? In developing the Flash Player, we've seen problems with C library compatibility before, and that was just in trying to support a single C library across multiple distributions. So now I'm worried about subtle API or binary incompatibilities that may arise between the 2 C libraries.

So far, this is a Debian move. But that may influence other distributions. From reading various sources and bug trackers, it looks like more distributions are evaluating the idea (or perhaps just fielding questions from users who are not up to speed on the issues but who have read the headlines).

There are already enough challenges in trying to produce a single binary that runs across as many Linux distributions as possible. But who knows? Maybe this will whole episode blow over like so many audio APIs.

Posted by Mike Melanson at 4:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (75)

We are pleased to announce that there is now a version of the Flash Player for Linux that supports 16 theoretical exabytes of physical memory. This technological feat is accomplished using a bleeding edge type of processor known as a 64-bit CPU.

Pictured: the next big thing-- an 80-bit CPU; but 64 bits will have to do for now

So we have this x86-64 version of the Linux Flash Player available for those Linux users who have moved on to fully 64-bit computing environments. Go get it now on Labs. Be advised that this is pre-release quality. We hope to receive useful feedback about what areas need to be improved. You can help. You can report bugs at the Flash Player bug tracker. Hey, it gets results-- the 64-bit issue is approaching resolution. Or you can try the customary drive-by bug report in the comments section ("I tried it on XYZ distro and it didn't work!") which is almost guaranteed to help no one.

I feel a bit sentimental about it all. It's weird, but I think I'm going to miss the hundreds of comments on every post gently requesting a 64-bit version. So don't be afraid to pop in with a "64-BIT NOW!!!1!!" comment every so often, you know, just for old time's sake.

Posted by Mike Melanson at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (302)