back to article Adobe reverses decision to kill NPAPI Flash plugin for Linux

Adobe has reversed its decision to kill the NPAPI Flash plugin on Linux, instead deciding that penguinistas deserve some love after four years of neglect. Adobe's notification of the changes includes news that its beta channel beta now includes test code for version 23 of the Linux NPAPI Flash Player. Linux NPAPI users have …

  1. channel extended

    Flash has been dead

    Flash has been dead to me for years. Nope. Still dead.

  2. Mark 85

    Desparation much?

    Seems like a last ditch effort to avoid becoming irrelevant. I guess they figure that Linux is impervious to malware and Flash will be safe.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    relevant iff

    I can play original Hatfall without booting Windows anymore.

  4. a_yank_lurker

    The Grinch

    We Penguinistas must have been very bad this year to get the current version of Turd aka Flash.

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Trollface

      Re: The Grinch

      Punishment for systemd.

  5. Tristan Young

    Flash is dead, give it a proper burial

    Let's put it another way... Sure, you can polish a turd, but it's still a turd, and it still smells like Adobe's crap. The best thing that anyone can do is drop a flash in the toilet.

    I've been flash-free for a while now, don't miss it one bit,

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Devil

      Re: Flash is dead, give it a proper burial

      "I've been flash-free for a while now, don't miss it one bit,"

      I've had too many problems in the past with the linux flash plugins in FreeBSD, and so I've been relatively flash-free since gnash lost support (and wouldn't work on half the sites anyway). I don't miss it. Also didn't miss it when NoScript blocked all of the flash ads, and NOW "lack of plugin" blocks them as well. Web sites load FASTER without flash on your system.

      Now if there were a way to get rid of JQuery and OTHER monolithic scripting cruft...

  6. MacroRodent

    Good

    Flash may be bad, but tell it to the web site builders. Until they dump Flash, it is only good that Linux users can view them, too.

    1. Ole Juul

      Bad

      Adobe's sole purpose is to screw people around. That they're upping the ante just shows that they truly are evil. And the web site builders who insist on perpetrating this crap can take a hike. You don't want to hear what else I have to say about it.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge
        Devil

        Re: Bad

        And the web site builders who insist on perpetrating this crap can take a hike.

        There's a special place in hell reserved for those who put a useless Flash intro on the main page of their site and then put a skip intro link, but as part of the Flash intro.

        1. Fibbles

          Re: Bad

          But, but... If the skip button was a plain hyperlink you might never load the intro. If you do that how else will we share with you the main buzzwords of our mission statement? It is imperative that we tell you about how we work with the community to promote synergy; how we leverage our visionary product to promote organic growth. If you don't see these words floating next to stock photos of smiling people you may never realise that we are innovative and disruptive thought-leaders. How will you know that our paradigm shifting business is a game changer that will cause the entire industry to pivot? How will you know?

          1. Mark 85

            @Fibbles -- Re: Bad

            That was so good, it is scary. You captured the marketing BS perfectly.

    2. GrumpenKraut
      Mushroom

      Re: Good

      Are there web site builders who still create Flash content? If so, shoot them. ---->

      I do not have Flash on my computer for quite a few years and none of the Flash content (that I viewed on someone else's Machine) tempted my to re-install Flash (even if it were secure). Can anyone give such an example? Genuine question.

      1. MacroRodent

        Re: Good

        Can anyone give such an example? Genuine question.

        One relevant example (for me and other Finns) is YLE Areena, the streaming site of the Finnish equivalent of BBC. They used to serve Microsoft media streams, so Flash in this case was actually a step forward....

        1. AMBxx Silver badge
          Unhappy

          Re: Good

          O2 business billing is all flash. It's the only way to get a downloadable invoice.

          1. GrumpenKraut

            Re: Good

            Thanks for the answers.

            I forgot to say why I abandoned Flash long ago. It was before the browsers got the restore-tabs-after-crash feature. I used to have many tabs open and when some page had Flash the browser would crash with a probability of more than 20 per cent, leaving me to recall each and every site I was on, very annoying.

          2. VinceH

            Re: Good

            "O2 business billing is all flash. It's the only way to get a downloadable invoice."

            Thanks for telling me who to steer well clear of if I ever want to switch!

  7. John Doe 6

    AFAIK we were getting security updates for 11.2 so there must be some other explanation for this... My FlashPlayer 11.2 on OpenSuSE was at least updated from the repo.

    Yes, I am using Linux 100% for work and at home...

  8. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Meh

    Nope

    Haven't got flash installed on any machine here. Can't remember when I last did have it.

  9. David Austin

    My Only worry with Flash...

    ..Is all the legacy content that's going to die with it when it's life support is finally taken away: Like it or Loath it, pretty much any Internet MultiMedia from the late 90's/Early 00's was built for it. Think how barren newgrounds will look on that day.

    ...Still that's something for the archivists to worry about: As a network administrator, that's a security headache I won't miss having.

  10. Richard Lloyd

    We've had updates for years, just for 11.2 though...

    Strangely, Adobe have been regularly updating Linux for Flash, but just for their zillion security fixes for version 11.2. It is a bit bizarre that after years being stuck on 11.2 (though seemingly not causing any compatibility issues with the sites I visit), we're suddenly going to jump 12 major versions in one fell swoop.

    What I want to know is whether this will see the resurrection of the Android Flash plugin too - that's even more out of date than the Linux version. Weirdly, it's become useless for me in recent years - plays 10 seconds of video in Android Firefox and then freezes...

  11. Paul

    Even with chrome, which sandboxes the pepper flash plugin, i still run a flash blocker extension. Then flash only runs when I let it. This solves most problems.

    I don't install Adobe flash and so flash doesn't run in Firefox, but I don't care.

  12. Ken Hagan Gold badge
    Black Helicopters

    But ... why?

    Have the BBC decided that HTML5 is too difficult and so they've decided to bung some cash at Adobe instead?

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: But ... why?

      You can accuse the BBC of many things but being bothered about Linux is not one of them.

    2. HAL-9000

      Re: But ... why?

      DRM management, but wait things are changing perhaps Adobe have realised.

  13. Mystic Megabyte
    FAIL

    Hello BBC

    I'm one of the people that do not have a TV but watched the iPlayer. Now you want me to pay but there are a few problems.

    1) Bandwidth: Ask BT why this country is lagging behind, sometimes I cannot even stream radio :(

    2) Your reliance on Flash: I only use Linux, none of your download options work. Please remove the "Autoplay" function because it does not work as intended. If I switch it off then my choice is ignored. If I watch a video of a volcano why do you think that I'd be interested in every other fucking volcano that exists?

    3) I'm not going to pay the licence fee, fuck you!

    1. Missing Semicolon Silver badge
      Stop

      Re: Hello BBC

      Well, if you don't want to pay for the copyrighted content, don't watch it.

      Not fair otherwise.

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Hello BBC

      1) Isn't it your job to ask BT or change ISP?

      2a) get_iplayer.

      2b) YouTube suggestions don't work either. So what?

      3) None of these could in any way be described as good reasons to not pay the licence fee.

      1. Fibbles

        Re: Dan 55

        All good points. However, whilst get_iplayer is a great program I don't think it should let the Beeb off the hook for their shoddy Linux support.

  14. bin

    I for one am glad to see Adobe taking this step. My missus is totally non-technical - she sits at a linux laptop and does her thing and I'm reasonably happy she's not going to get hit by nasties. We've been Windows free for 10 years now.

    In a mom 'n pop setup it's obvious that you're going to be needing flash to view those sites that still demand it - good or bad, it is what it is.

    So go on - give Adobe some luuuurrrv (in the nicest possible way of course - that does not mean bent over a chair) for a change.

  15. Zippy's Sausage Factory
    Pirate

    Anyone else get this mental image?

    I have a mental image of someone repeatedly hitting a zombie with a shovel saying "why... won't... you... die?"

    Probably Shaun of the Dead, but maybe not. I probably watch too many zombie movies (or not enough, take your pick).

    Skull and crossbones because there's no brains icon...

    1. BenDwire Silver badge

      Re: Anyone else get this mental image?

      I think it's more like The Black Knight - 'Tis only a flesh wound etc. etc.

      1. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Pirate

        Re: Anyone else get this mental image?

        Flash - it's an UNDEAD horse. It's been beaten to death SO many times, it's become UNDEAD.

        https://allthetropes.org/wiki/Undead_Horse_Trope

        skull and crossbones, because, Pirates of the Caribbean [the first movie]

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Smells to me

    Like the NSA cant find any backdoors and may have encouraged Adobe to re-launch theirs.

  17. No_Name

    Some major US sites like HBO use flash + DRM. The 11.2 flash player on Linux supports DRM (assuming you install hal which still works in Ubuntu 16.6 for example). The flash 23 beta Linux notes state they don't support DRM in NPAPI and suggest using PPAPI on Linux for DRM context. PPAPI ver 23 on Linux is not provided so apparently Adobe have no idea what they are doing ...

  18. Bela Lubkin

    My guess: some crucial security fix which is just too difficult to backport to the ancient 11.2 code base. For this reason to make sense, there also has to be at least one gigantic paying customer or strategic partner who firmly insist on continued Linux support. This was already a necessary condition for the previous ongoing 11.2 patching, but now we know that the insisting customer is even bigger or more strategic than we might previously have imagined...

  19. Michael Habel

    Does this mean...

    That an Android Version is also underway?

    1. Ken Hagan Gold badge

      Re: Does this mean...

      If so then I'm not bothered. Most Android devices will never get the update.

      (If only they were attached to some sort of global wireless network so that updates could be sent to them automatically, as and when they were produced ...)

  20. PaulFrederick

    Flash is still a thing?

    I was on a website that used a lot of Flash the other day. I felt repulsed by it too. I figure if a website uses a lot of Flash I'm better off not seeing it anyways.

  21. roger stillick
    Linux

    Streaming Video ??

    Using Ubuntu - Mate= lost the ability of the Netscape Browser to support Streaming Video..

    Or, no NHK-TV, no NPR-TV, no streaming video of any kind.. HTML-5 stuff works ok..

    a technical complaint to NHK-tv staff resulted in a reply last month= "they were looking into it'..

    IMHO= global TV folks finally realized a large percentage of their audience couldn't view them..

    Those same TV folks probably asked Adobe to "fix it'.. RS.

    1. Lord_Beavis
      Trollface

      Re: Streaming Video ??

      There's an NPR-TV? What is it? A bunch of hipsters talking about the latest specialty mustard?

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