[arch-general] [arch-dev-public] dropping flashplugin x86_64

[Caleb Cushing]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 5:57 AM, Philipp Überbacher
<hollunder at lavabit.com> wrote:
> I have no idea, it was simply the latest ubuntu live CD, i386 I believe.
> I never claimed that it was scientific, just recent experience. I used a
> live CD for this because I didn't want to install flash, but now I
> couldn't install it if I wanted to (practically I could, but it would be
> insane).

so... you're blaming flash for something that /could/ be a problem
with your environment... and certainly something flash was not
designed to run on... I've had livecd's with graphical environments
cease to respond after leaving them unattended. I blame the
environment... livecd's are great for recovery... but mediocre, at
best, for an actual environment.

> The whole thing is a great example why we should avoid proprietary
> technologies. First we're used as a testbed, then dropped. It shows how
> much you're at the companies mercy. That alone is reason enough for me
> to not use stuff like flash or skype.

right... as if open source never stops getting supported for long
periods of time... synergy anyone? or that we're never used as a
testbed *cough*kde 4.0*cough*.

> It wasn't about the game, but more about how well it runs. I was
> surprised to say the least. It kind of defeats the 'flash is much more
> than video' argument. Same is probably true for that wikipedia video
> page I linked somewhere, it has well working controls, very similar to
> those of flash players.

I'm sure it does...

> I've no idea about how well it is supported across browsers, only tried
> FF. I agree that it should work across all browsers and also all
> platforms (not sure flash does ppc and stuff). It might or might not
> work in some alternative browsers, but they sadly still have plenty of
> issues anyway. IE however will have to catch up in reasonable time if
> it lags behind other major browsers. From what I remember, they said
> they'll support webm, if only as codec you need to install separately.
> Proper html5 and js support will have to happen too.

it depends... I doubt many/any companies will do a full switch without
at least 50% market share. Which IE still holds, (flash has something
like 99% market share). Certainly it's not going away on youtube.

> So maybe it's not all there yet, and flash isn't dead yet, but I think
> (and hope) it won't take very long.

I suspect unless IE adopts webm it'll be around for a very long time.

-- 
Caleb Cushing

http://xenoterracide.blogspot.com