Flashplugin

[Derek Graham]

on Saturday 07 June 2008Saturday 07 June 2008 Tobias Hoellrich "Tobias 
Hoellrich" <thoellri at adobe.com> wrote:

> [Disclaimer: I work for Adobe Systems. I have nothing to do with the
> Flash Player. I'm a grunt who works on other stuff. This is my personal
> opinion as a long-time FreeBSD user and I'm not making any statements
> for Adobe.]
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Jona Joachim
> > Sent: Saturday, June 07, 2008 4:58 PM
> > To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > Subject: Re: Flashplugin
> >
> > Flash is a big pain IMO.
> > The Flash question has been asked *a lot* of times on this list.
> > The answer usually boils down to "use www/nspluginwrapper" or "use
> > linux-firefox". Both "solutions" are far from optimal.
> > My solution is to simply ignore Flash content. It makes your
> > "online experience"
> > much more enjoyable. This is my personal choice of course.
>
> I'm afraid that's the age-old question of demand. If there was enough
> demand out there, I'm sure that any software manufacturer would consider
> FreeBSD a platform that needs to be supported.
> Providing support for the Flash Player on FreeBSD is not a one-shot
> thing. You don't have some summer intern create a port of the current
> version of the player, release it and then be done with it. If a
> platform is officially supported it means dedication of a lot of
> resources: engineering and especially testing. Once a platform is
> adopted it needs to be rev'ed whenever the other platforms are updated,
> otherwise you end up again in a situation where a certain application
> that requires new Flash Player features does not work for you. This all
> means time and money. Adobe as any other public company has to justify
> its actions to its shareholders. If anybody scrutinizes the books and
> sees a substantial amount of engineering and QA resources being
> dedicated to a platform that has very little desktop market penetration
> and because of that some other important high-reach features were
> dropped, I'm sure that public company would have to answer some
> questions about it.
>
> Since the last discussion I actually contacted the Flash Player team and
> asked what it would take to get an official port for Flash Player on
> FreeBSD. I was asked to provide numbers that would indicate how many
> *desktop* FreeBSD systems are out there and how many of them are used on
> a *regular* basis. So, if anybody on this list can provide those
> answers, I'd be more than happy to do my part and relay the answers back
> to those people who can actually influence decisions in this area.
> Again, I'm not speaking for Adobe, I'm just offering to help as much as
> I can as a happy FreeBSD user (well, if it wasn't for
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=123735 on 8.0-CURRENT).
>
> > I think it is rather reducing when you have to beg unkind
> > vendors to eventually
> > consider that you exist.
> > I don't think proprietary binary formats have their place on
> > the web. The WWW is
> > an information exchange platform, why would you want to
> > diffuse information
> > around the globe when you know that a lot of people will not
> > be able to decipher
> > it? It's a bit arrogant I think.
>
> That's simply wrong. The Flash format byte-code is *not* proprietary. If
> you want to, you can go ahead and create your own Flash Player. The
> specifications for the format are freely available at:
> http://www.adobe.com/openscreenproject/developers/
>
> And Gnash (http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/), which was started before
> the spec was available, will certainly benefit from this.
>
> And to address a previous message: if your bank requires you to use the
> Flash Player to make a transaction, then you will need to get in touch
> with your bank and not blame it on the non-existence of the Flash Player
> on your platform. A disabled person with a text-only browser or a
> screen-reader will certainly have the same issues.
>
> My offer stands: if anybody can provide the numbers above, I'm going to
> forward them to the right people and work things from my end.
>
> Don't beat me up, I'm for the support - even if I'm not using FreeBSD as
> a desktop OS.
>
> Thanks and happy weekend - Tobias
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FreeBSD is my one and only desktop, I run a small business and do not tend to 
like to switch back and forth from os's mainly cause i use sql-ledger and it 
is my main server to keep up with my bookkeeping. My wifes pc was using 
pc-bsd but lack of flash made her goto kubuntu
Sincerely,
Derek A. Graham
President
D and M Computers, Inc.
Exceeding your expectations everyday!
http://www.dandmcomputers.co.cc/
(847) 305-1954 ext 101