[SPAM] Re: Flash Player on FreeBSD

[Michael Vince]

Frank Laszlo wrote:

>Ádám Szilveszter wrote:
>  
>
>>Ok, after reading all of this, I start to wonder... There is lots of
>>talk about asking Macromedia for a flash player for FreeBSD, some
>>would be even ready to pay up...
>>
>>At the same time, I see little to no movements in creating alternative
>>flash players... as if it was a natural given that only Macromedia
>>software could be used to ever touch flash. Interesting. <Irony> Why
>>no fundraise for an MS Office port for FreeBSD then? </Irony>
>>  
>>    
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>Openoffice.
>
>  
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>>Unfortunately in the past there were some attempts here and there with
>>alternatives but they are mostly abandoned by now, except for the GNU
>>sponsored project which is n very early stage. It would be interesting
>>to know why this is so? (Apart from major lazyness on the part of many
>>open source developers who consider that since they can use their
>>Linux boxes with the Macromedia software, there is no problem to
>>solve)
>>  
>>    
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>
>Laziness has nothing to do with it, most open source developers have
>other (paying) jobs that are more important than a non-paying hobby.
>  
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>>As for "only occasional" releases (that you even pay for!) just to be
>>something for FreeBSD: no thanks. We already had that with the
>>"official" Netscape binaries for FreeBSD: it was really major fun to
>>load all the compatibility crap because their application only ever
>>existed in aout format. Such things also become outdated. This is not
>>the way. Imagine if Macromedia once released a version 5 binary for
>>FreeBSD and that's all you'd be left with until say version 9. Good
>>luck with using that on today's sites.
>>  
>>    
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>This is only speculation, As long as there is a market, macromedia will
>continue to release software.
>  
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>>If you want to raise money, raise it to support the development of an
>>alternative open source flash player so that everybody can make use of
>>it.
>>  
>>    
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>Ok, so we need to get macromedia open release the technical
>specifications for the flash format to do this, and continue to release
>updates for it as the time progresses, this isn't much different from
>having them release a compatible version.
>
>
>-Frank
>_______________________________________________
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I still say its all bit of a day dream to choose to wait for Macromedia 
to open the Flash  spec, when it seems that the reason they are now 
banning the use of their flash modules to only OS's they specify are 
reasons such as they feel that one day maybe they could loose control of 
they own flash products because of projects like the GNU flash project.

The GNU flash project has been around for years and its moving slower 
then a snail pace I don't see it ever amounting to anything, I have been 
watching it in the ports tree for at least 2 years and I don't think its 
even changed versions over that time.
And I think its just going to far, I mean Linux had a fully functional 
flash module but that wasn't enough? Seems like we now loose it all due 
to greed.

To me I feel almost certain the reason why Macromedia have gotten mean 
with their flash products is purely so they are in a better position to 
lawyer death star the GNU flash project if it ever amounted to something.

Seems like there is a lot of naivety in the tech industry, its just like 
recently how AMD sued Intel,  "AMD said Intel engages in worldwide 
coercion of customers to stop them dealing with AMD. / AMD says Intel 
has paid Dell and Toshiba huge sums not to do business with AMD.  "
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=24236

Sure enough after about 1 month later Dell start selling boxed packages 
of AMD CPUs, this is pretty pointless for Dell as not many people just 
want to buy CPUs by them selves and it increases support problems for 
them as people would be putting them into motherboards that Dell did 
sell etc.
A lot of people reported how good it was of Dell to start doing this 
after all these years but its pretty clear the real reason Dell started 
doing this all of a sudden was as a favor to Intel to crush AMDs  
lawsuit. Would you take 100 million dollars from Intel and not do them 
favors now and then? I am sorry again this is just how it is.
Until Dell start putting AMD cpus in their home/business Dell brand 
computers this is just a very destructive move against AMD and their 
lawsuit.

This thread started out being about getting flash NOW as in really soon, 
now its just all day dreaming.
You can expect Flash on FreeBSD in the 2 decades while we wait for 
Macromedia to open spec flash (which appears to be the last thing they 
want to do ) or wait for the GNU flash project which Macromedia might be 
planning to sue and looks like will never amount to anything because its 
already been around for many years and its unusable.

My original idea/theory seems possible you pull together 20k in a 4 day 
fund raise like other FreeBSD projects have done ( 
http://people.freebsd.org/~andre/tcpoptimization.html 
http://people.freebsd.org/~cperciva/funding.html ) and you pay for it, 
and have flash in maybe a week? It couldn't take long to port the Linux 
flash module sources over at Macromedia to FreeBSD and build a binary.

I really do believe that no amount of naive day dreaming is going to get 
anywhere.
As for my PHP Zend encoder on 6.x FreeBSD, I bought the encoder during 
the 4.x days and I simply haven't upgraded the encoder yet.

Mike