Submitted by “An alpha version of 64-bit Adobe Flash Player 10 for Linux operating systems was released on 11/17/2008 and is available for download. This offers easier, native installation on 64-bit Linux distributions and removes the need for 32-bit emulation.” The pre-release can be downloaded from Adobe Lab Downloads.
Interestingly enough Adobe has chosen Linux as its initial platform of choice to launch their native 64-bit flash-player. The reason behind this decision is explained in their FAQ.
Why aren’t the Windows and Mac 64-bit alpha versions available on Adobe Labs?
Release of this alpha version of 64-bit Flash Player on Linux is the first step in delivering upon Adobe’s commitment to make Flash Player native 64-bit across platforms. We chose Linux as our initial platform in response to numerous requests in our public Flash Player bug and issue management system and the fact that Linux distributions do not ship with a 32-bit browser or a comprehensive 32-bit emulation layer by default. Until this prerelease, use of 32-bit Flash Player on Linux has required the use of a plugin wrapper, which prevents full compatibility with 64-bit browsers. With this prelease, Flash Player 10 is now a full native participant on 64-bit Linux distributions. We are committed to bringing native 64-bit Flash Player to Windows and Mac in future prereleases.
Key New Features:
- 3D Effects
- Custom Filters and Effects
- Advanced Text Layout
- Enhanced Drawing API
- Visual Performance Improvements
- Enhanced Sound APIs
should read something like “Adobe resleases Alpha/Pre release 64 bit version of flash for linux”
adobe’s flash suport with linux has been bad in the past (10 has been pretty good though so far). given past history though, installing anything labled Alpha that has to do with flash and linux just sounds like extra work and heart ache.
I don’t mean to be snide, but isn’t that par for the course for the majority of FOSS software?
Incoming negative points!
Adobe’s stuff isn’t FOSS, of course. If someone releases FOSS that is buggy and immature, others can fix it. Only Adobe can fix their own code.
The good news, though, is that since Adobe cares about x86-64 for Windows and Mac, they’ll be highly motivated to fix any bugs found, and many of the bugs will be platform-independent.
Recent releases of Firefox now work once again with Gnash.
http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/
If you want a flash plugin for firefox 3 that: (1) is FOSS, (2) works with most sites, including Youtube, and (3) works natively in 64-bit versions, then Gnash is perhaps the FOSS alternative to Adobe that may suit you.
Last time I tried GNASH, I had a black square instead of the Flash animation.
The truth is in the middle with Gnash. I’m on FreeBSD/AMD64 so I have no choice. I was surprised how well Gnash works lately the 0.8.4 release works on some youtube videos (it doesn’t support h.264 yet) and most other youtube-likes. It still has problems with complicated actionscript sites but it crashes a lot less (less than Flash 9 did for me in linux).
There are rumors that Adobe has a native Flash 10 for FreeBSD in the works:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/webforums/forum/messageview.cfm?forumi…
http://thebackbutton.com/blog/73/64-bit-linux-freebsd-flash-player-…
I am using it (Gnash) and it is not compatible with all the videos of youtube. Maybe cloning a commercial aplication is not the best option for to make the software free.
Yeah, it is sort of the opposite of commercial software companies that label software in an alpha state as a release. And expects you to pay for it.
I do hope you meant headache and not heartache.
can’t it be both
I guess it depends on what you mean by “extra work and heart ache”, but all I had to do was extract the .tar.gz into ~/.opera/plugins and restart Opera.
So far it seems to work at least as well as going through nspluginwrapper.
I had to do
$sudo cp libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/opera/plugins/
but result is the same – working like it should be looong time ago
Warren Togami made a very good and interesting point over in the comments at LWN.net. It’s still better to run plugins under NSPluginWrapper in order to benefit from running the plugin code in a separate process, as it should be. Ever since Netscape, and its successors, made the technically questionable decision of plugging alien code right into the browser, crashes due to plugin problems have been something we’ve just expected and lived with. (I used to cringe, as a sort of conditioned response, every time I saw a java applet initializing on a page.) We Linux users cannot yet run Google Chrome. But at least us 64 bit Linux users have enjoyed one of its greatest advantages for some time now.
Edited 2008-11-18 21:11 UTC
Can you please share how you can kill a misbehaving flash? Do you use “killall nspluginwrapper”?
Edited 2008-11-18 21:23 UTC
killall npviewer.bin
Usually, though, it just dies, leaving the browser intact, sans the misbehaving flash app.
Edited 2008-11-18 21:31 UTC
(Sing to the tune of the “Rawhide” theme song)
“Loading, loading, loading,
Damn that Java coding,
Reload!”
It is also still better to run the 32 bit binary in nspluginwrapper for snappier performance. YMMV. If it does not please roll your eyes at Adobe.
i just love adobe flash:
http://flashblock.mozdev.org
http://my.opera.com/Lex1/blog/flashblock-for-opera-9
What’s so cool about this is that the linux community get it before the windows crowd!
How often does that happen with software such as this?
Whenever the company feels it needs alpha or beta testers for its software before distributing it to the people who actually matter. 🙁
Well, how many people run 64-bit Windows on the desktop, vs. Linux?
Edited 2008-11-18 23:27 UTC
How many people have existing peripheral equipment, and the CDs that came with that equipment, with Windows drivers on the CDs … but the drivers on the CDs are 32-bit and designed for XP?
Microsoft has a model that “the hardware OEM makes the drivers”. There is consequently quite a shortage of 64-bit drivers for Windows.
Microsoft has a design such that “XP drivers won’t work with Vista”. There is consequently quite a shortage of drivers for Vista.
Linux has a design aim of: “we have the source code”. 64-bit drivers are a mere recompile away, in most cases.
I dont think thats the right question to ask, almost every app on linux is 64bit apart from some propriatary ones(no surprise there)
On the Windows platform it’s hit and miss, you dont have 64bit Microsoft has a nice 32bit layer for you, thats why they put it there because of the poor slow uptake on it’s platform.
To be fair, there’s not a whole lot of incentive for people to go 64-bit on the Windows browser plugins. The 32-bit IE running in Wow64 seems to run well enough and we don’t exactly promote the use of the 64-bit IE although it does exist in the install.
Omg, talk about victim mentality. So whatever happens, it’s all for the worse?
I’m in no hurry. Here on Vista x64, 32-bit applications work without problems. But starting moving applications to 64-bit could never hurt though.
Ohh, I like the question about how many users use 64-bit OS’s!
I only use 64-bit on Linux. All my windows computers (no matter their processor) use 32-bit.
Why?
Too expensive for 64-bit windows, espeically if a 32-bit system was originally installed. You can’t upgrade cheaply or for free in Windows!
I have been using Gnash 64-bit for months. It works great.
All this hub-bub about Flash 64-bit was silly, and started by either Adobe itself to hype itself, or by a newbie who never heard of Gnash.
Quite the opposite here. I don’t have Linux applications resource demanding enough to make use of even 3.2 GB (I never underestimate Firefox though) so I don’t see the point in 64 bit. Maybe for cache like in Vista.
The upgrade to 64 for me was less than 10 bucks, from Microsoft, and most all of that was shipping.. it isn’t free but its close to it.
I accidentally got and used a 64 bit debian for a month before I figured out why flash was giving me trouble. It’s so damned seamless.
Say I’m unobservant, say I should label my CDs. Say what you like! 64 bit Linux is awesome.
Hmm, good news for 64-bit Linux users.
Granted, I know a dozen 64-bit Windows users who would probably like a Windows build, so they need that more than 64-bit Linux but definitly a good thing.
Maybe its just me, but the latest version of Flash for 32-bit Linux causes Firefox to crash, I downgraded to 9. I hope the 64-bit alpha isn’t so bad.
Well?
How long must we choose between lousy operating systems or overpriced hardware?
pardon my ignorance, but how on earth do you install this. I have firefox and am using the nspluginwrapper.
I’m guessing I need to somehow remove the nspluginwrapper 32 bit adobe install and then install the 64bit version?
Bah, perhaps I should just wait for a .deb
1) Remove the nspluginwrapper-ed Flash by using the nspluginwrapper -r command
2) Copy flashplayer.so into ~/.mozilla/plugins
thanks man. worked perfectly
Before I start, I wish to explain why I think Flash is still important to a 64-bit Linux user. Personally, I think Flash should be replaced by AJAX or some other open standard. But unfortunately, a lot of websites use Flash. While Google Video and YouTube has a ton of inane videos, it is an immeasurable resource for those who want access to music. This is especially true for those who want to listen to very rare music from countries where copyright laws are not really enforced. A lot of other good websites provide their content in Flash, like http://www.democracynow.org. Until Flash is replaced by an open standard, many of us are stuck with using Flash.
Thankfully a lot of distributions have made it easy to install the 32-bit libraries needed for Flash. Debian provides most 32-bit libraries in a single package. Unfortunately for those who do not use a mainstream distribution, this is not one simple task. It requires rebuilding an entire toolchain for 32-bit, then recompiling dozens of libraries. Just setting up a cross-compiler is no simple trick. I have built my 64-bit Linux system using the Linux From Scratch book. I have spent countless hours trying to get 32-bit compiling working for the sole purpose of using Flash. I finally gave up, and I’m glad I did now that Adobe will support 64-bit Flash.
So far, Flash works quite well with most websites. The only issue I ran into is when I right click on a video and choose “Settings…”, the dialog will not dispose when clicking “Close.”
I would also highly recommend installing Flash Blocker, which prevents a lot of annoying advertisements from being loaded.
I’d rather see swf, and AS3 become standards (they mostly are), and then have the official Flash Player’s Source opened up (much of it already is).
I actually think Adobe eventually will do that, for most of it. They have been paying attention to Open source, and studying hard, and have a track record of being able to do valid market analysis. They do have licensed some bits (font engine, codecs, etc.), so they’d have to purchase those bits to open them, and that may not really be feasible. With much more of the source available than currently is (and some build infrastructure Adobe – no one wants to touch Tamarin if it isn’t being used for anything), I could easily see a project like Iced Tea cropping up, that would simply use Adobe’s code base, and graft in parts of SwfDec, Gnash (or both), freetype, etc. to fill in the gaps.