Getting rid of Adobe flash in Ubuntu

I decided to remove flash after they abandoned the x64 project. I ran x32 flash briefly with nsplugin wrapper, it ran well for a change considering the issues with the nsplugin, however I decided to join html5 for youtube and luckily, quite a few of them are coming coded with html5, for flash I decided to give Gnash a spin. However since its still in alpha stage, I wanted to get the latest one instead of the one in the repo, for that I went to www.getgnash.org/packages and followed instructions to add the gnash repo for Lucid.

So far youtube works fine in Google Chrome and FF with Gnash plugin, other sites like Dailymotion, Vimeo doesn't and also some flash enabled sites dont, no loss for me, if I need movies, I download them and then watch it with SMPLAYER. Gnash works quite well but expect CPU spikes, not an issue on my 8 core but people running old dual cores might run into issues. However since its a ppa, expect rapid progress and updates, Google is helping Gnash project out by giving them latest tips on running Gnash on youtube, sadly for now, Opera doesn't work with Gnash so I am using Chrome for my flash purpose. We have to encourage this as Adobe has given too many headaches recently. Gnash uses hardware acceleration which Adobe refuses to do in Linux so its a good move in the longer run. Give it a try and post your feedback, remember to remove Flash with purge or total uninstall in case you decide to use Gnash.

 

They didn't abandon it.

I am currently using the 64-bit Flash v10.0.45.2, the last version that had available on Adobe Labs. I am having zero problems with this plug-in. It is available on Softpedia

I does appear that version 10.1 is causing a lot of problems for some folks.

Thanks for posting about your results with Gnash. I have been looking at Gnash as a possible alternative to flash. Since Adobe's 64-bit Flash beta plug-in is working is still working well for me I see no reason to switch.

 

never tried Gnash, but I will give it a go in the next few days, and post my experiences.

 

There was no problems as such with x64 Flash alpha except for the disclosed security issue.

 

Are you referring to this issue?

That was fixed in v10.0.45.2

 

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/09/adobe-promises-fix-for-flash-vulnerability-by-tomorrow-reader-a/

 

Thanks but that link does nothing to point out what vulnerability. The have been 32 identified in the last three months. My guess, is this one since it is the most recent issued by the US-CERTI

So... yes there exist a vulnerability issue with my installed version and at the moment no fix. I accept the risks which in my opinion are minimal.

I download the Gnash 0.8.7 source and will compile and install it in the next day or two. I'll post back on the results.

 

Would be interested, I installed Gnash latest from their ppa, the one in Lucid is old.

 

Well I finally installed gnash in Slackware64. It works but marginally.

I compiled and installed the latest stable version 0.8.7.

I tested it on YouTube and most videos load but have either sound or playback problems. Tried one flash game and it was no go.

I am back to using Adobe's 64-bit v10.0.45.2 libflashplayer.so

 

Actually latest flash x32 via nsplugin is working brilliantly here on Kubuntu and most of my youtubes are html5 so I am happy for the moment.

 

That we are happy is the important part.

 

Well I dreaded the nsplugin wrapper but Ubuntu has finally done it right unlike other distros where x32 flash is causing nightmares under x64.

 

The alternatives to Adobe Flash for Linux/Unix that I know about are:

1) Gnash
2) LightSpark (may be still in development)
3) Smokescreen which converts existing Flash content into HTML5 and Javascript, on the fly.

-- Tom

 

Smokescreen sounds very good, the issue with the altnerates is that when you go to a Flash heavy site where inputs are needed, the problem comes then.

 

Well we have talked about Gnash, I think it still needs work.

First I've heard of Smokescreen. It does sound interesting, but conversion usually translates to slow. The demos seem to run OK though, but have no practical use as an alternative at the moment.

LightSpark also appears to need work and not ready for prime time yet.

 

Lightspark 0.4.2 open source Flash player released.

-- Tom

 

Anyone tried this yet?