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

[Heiko Baums]

Am Thu, 17 Jun 2010 07:06:23 -0400
schrieb Caleb Cushing <xenoterracide at gmail.com>:

> 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*.

Let me think. I'm using open source (Linux) since many years now.
Everything I needed was supported and maintained during all the years.
If a tool isn't maintained anymore then there's a fork or a usually
better alternative which is maintained.

Closed source? Windows? Windows 98? Windows NT? Windows XP in the near
future? Flash for x86_64? Several anti-virus software for x86_64?
Zattoo for x86_64? Everything is unsupported or stopped getting
supported. Flash for x86_64 was supported only for a short while (about
1 or 2 years?) anyway.

So what is getting better and longer supported? Open source or closed
source?

"... we're never used as a testbed ..."

Somehow it sounds as if you were from Adobe.

> 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.

I doubt that. Why has Flash a market share like 99%? Only because
portals like Youtube are using this and everyone wants to watch their
videos. As soon as Youtube and other video portals switch to HTML5
Flash's market share will rapidly decrease. I've already uninstalled it
due to the lack of x86_64 support and its security holes. For watching
Youtube videos without Flash and HTML5 I've found two nice Greasemonkey
user scripts, which let me watch the videos with the good working
gecko-mediaplayer.

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

I doubt that it will take too long until IE will adopt webm. And don't
overvalue IE. IE isn't as important as it was some years ago.

Heiko