Today a little entry continuing some of the common topics of the blog: flash, HTML5 and the web wars. In February Adobe announced that 11.2 was the last version for common NPAPI flash linux plugin and newer releases were only being provided using the new PPAPI. The Pepper Plugin API is a google project started in 2009 defined by themselves as a set of modifications to old NPAPI to make plugins more portable and more secure. The only browser that supports PPAPI right now is chrome and its open source version, chromium. So, after Adobe/Google partnership, the only way of using newer versions of the flash plugin in linux is browsing with chrome. Mozilla has commented several times that they will not implement the new Pepper API because now the future is HTML5, they do not want to make a double effort in something is intended to be replaced. But it is quite clear that this issue will not be harmless to firefox in the linux world.
On the other side there is the possibility of using one of the open source alternatives to the Adobe closed source flash plugin. I know two projects, gnash and lightspark, which are exactly that but, although I do not use any of them, I am very skeptical of the current status and usability of both projects. So I repeat that, in my humble opinion, if a linux user wants a good quality flash plugin in the long term he should use chrome, google is turning the screw on competitors.
Finally, to close this little introduction, you already know that there are attempts to translate a SWF file into a HTML5 compatible page (see for example this google project, swiffy, or this mozilla initiative, shumway) and, in general, flash can be replaced by new HTML5 features. But all of us are conscious that right now flash is still needed in common internet use.
Although I have no problems with current 11.2 r202 version, I am preparing my system to have the chromium debian package with the newer pepper version. I understand I am going where google wants me to go, but you never know, better be prepared. I have followed the instructions given in this archlinux forum:
Uncompress and extract the plugin library from the installation file (the manifest.json file contains the version and some other information of the plugin, in this stable version was 11.4.31.110):
$ ar vx google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb
x - debian-binary
x - control.tar.gz
x - data.tar.lzma
$ mkdir chrome
$ cd chrome/
$ tar --lzma -xf ../data.tar.lzma
$ find . | grep PepperFlash
./opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash
./opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so
./opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/manifest.json
Copy the plugin library to a proper system location in my debian box:
After doing the previous points the new version is installed inside the browser. It can be checked using the plugins page (chrome://plugins) and both, the Adobe about page and version finder page.
Plugins page from chromium
Adobe about page
Adobe version page
Today entry comments the current status of the Adobe flash plugin in Linux and gives detailed instructions to setup the new pepper library in chromium (I think that I will need to update it from time to time). Google pounded the table again, partnering with Adobe the more recent versions of the Adobe flash library only works inside their browser in a linux box. I know all about flash in linux is absolutely crazy, but this issue goes one step further.
Installing my new laptop I have discovered that Debian testing has a new non-free package called pepperflashplugin-nonfree.
This package does exactly what I told in this entry but automatically (it downloads the chrome distribution file, decompress the pepper library and places it in a proper location referenced by the default configuration file). So now, in Debian, you just need to install that package to get a proper flash support with chromium.
apt-get install pepperflashplugin-nonfree
Remember it is a non-free package (check your /etc/apt/sources.list if you don find it).
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