The Internet is already using HTML5 by default

Sep 5, 2016 21:40 GMT  ·  By

Today, September 5, 2016, Chris Campbell from the Adobe Flash Player and Adobe AIR development team has announced that Linux support for their Flash Player web technologies will make a comeback.

Some of us, hardcore Linux users, might remember (actually, we will never forget it) the fact that Adobe took the decision to ditch support for its buggy and outdated cross-browser plugin designed to allow users to view various web content written in Flash, such as videos or embedded audio players, or even entire websites.

Well, many Linux users were very sorry to hear that the Adobe Flash Player plugin would never be updated again, but guess what? The world evolved, as always, and new technologies are invented to replace the old ones and make our lives much better. That's why HTML5 replaced Adobe's Flash more than a year ago.

Today's most popular web browsers are using HTML5 by default, and we, Linux users, don't even know what Flash Player is. But it looks like Adobe changed its mind after four years of only patching the Linux port with security fixes, to bring Flash Player on par with the Windows and Mac OS X versions.

A Beta version is now available for testing

Moreover, Adobe announced a while ago that, beginning with 2017, they would completely drop support for the NPAPI version of Flash Player, but it looks like that's no longer the case, and starting today, they are promising to keep Linux users in the loop with the newest Flash Player releases.

"In the past, we communicated that NPAPI Linux releases would stop in 2017. This is no longer the case and once we have performed sufficient testing and received community feedback, we will release both NPAPI and PPAPI Linux builds with their major version numbers in sync and on a regular basis," says Chris Campbell of Adobe.

While it's true that not the entire Web is using HTML5 by default, and there are a few mainstream websites to still incorporate Flash technologies on their content, we believe that Flash Player is still obsolete, and no one cares if it's updated to a new version or not, at least not on Linux.

However, if you still want to give Flash Player a chance on Linux, or you need it for some special projects, you can download the 64-bit and 32-bit binaries right now via our website. However, please try to keep in mind that this is Beta quality software, not to be used in production environments.