correction: IIRC adobe is only dropping NPAPI support on *nix, Chrome(with Pepper support) is still supported
On Sat, 3 Nov 2012 17:13:02 -0700 Devin Harper <randomfract...@gmail.com> wrote: > Flash on the Web was mostly used for video (with occasional ads and > even more occasional other things). With the expectation that HTML5 > video will gradually take over displaying videos, and free > implementations of HTML5 video in Firefox and other places, volunteers > seem to have less interest nowadays in keeping a free and non-DRM'd. > > Flash player running.With all the tout about HTML5 replacing Flash a > year or so ago and then not seeing it going away in the majority of > sites so much later, I was not considering it as a reason to abandon > a free version of Flash. AFAIK Adobe is only retreating from Linux, > Android, and ARM, and they plan to keep updating and developing their > Flash player for desktop systems, so they are not going away anytime > soon. I think content providers know this and continue to develop > Flash applications which is why Flash has not been replaced by HTML5 > in most sites. In fact, there are mobile version of sites still just > beginning to pop up thanks to the lack of Flash on mobile devices. As > I am a desktop user, I am not expecting to live without Flash anytime > soon, for the mobile *versions of* sites are the only places where a > majority of content is distributed in HTML5 and not Flash. > > Note that this task wouldn't be adding AVM2 support to Gnash. It would > be a new code base, with as much code refactored from current Gnash as > possible. A complete rewrite of Gnash this way could have substantial > performance benefits, but as mentioned, this could easily turn into a > multi-year task nobody wants to fund. Also after several years of > development, Lightspark is still barely able to handle YouTube videos, > much less generic flash files. > > I suppose if AVM2 cannot be added to Gnash, Lightspark cannot be > added to Gnash either. Yes, and since there are only maintainers for > Gnash now and none of the organizations want to fund a developer to > add to Lightspark's limited progress, there is little hope. I'll just > keep using Flash, patiently wait for Lightspark, and adopt mobile > HTML5 as much as I can. > > > On Sat, Nov 3, 2012 at 9:00 AM, <gnash-requ...@gnu.org> wrote: > > > Send Gnash mailing list submissions to > > gnash@gnu.org > > > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnash > > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > > gnash-requ...@gnu.org > > > > You can reach the person managing the list at > > gnash-ow...@gnu.org > > > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > > than "Re: Contents of Gnash digest..." > > > > > > Today's Topics: > > > > 1. Re: There is another OSS Flash alternative. (John Gilmore) > > 2. Re: There is another OSS Flash alternative. (Rob Savoye) > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > Message: 1 > > Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2012 09:09:17 -0800 > > From: John Gilmore <g...@toad.com> > > To: Devin Harper <randomfract...@gmail.com> > > Cc: gnash@gnu.org > > Subject: Re: [Gnash] There is another OSS Flash alternative. > > Message-ID: <201211021709.qa2h9h2n014...@new.toad.com> > > > > The Gnash team spent significant effort toward making gnash work > > with AVM2, but AVM2 was very badly documented and we never got it to > > initialize a working AVM2 environment. Then gnash's traditional > > funding sources ran out (for unrelated reasons). > > > > Now that we have Lightspeed as a "proof of concept" about how AVM2 > > works, it should be possible for volunteers to debug and evolve the > > AVM2 support in Gnash. But few free software volunteers know or > > care much about Flash. It takes substantial expertise to debug and > > complete an interpreter whose main job is to run other peoples' > > mostly-binary-only programs, from a poorly-documented binary > > representation. > > > > Flash on the Web was mostly used for video (with occasional ads and > > even more occasional other things). With the expectation that HTML5 > > video will gradually take over displaying videos, and free > > implementations of HTML5 video in Firefox and other places, > > volunteers seem to have less interest nowadays in keeping a free > > and non-DRM'd Flash player running. > > > > By the way, there IS no "funding from GNU". In case you hadn't > > noticed, in this decade the Free Software Foundation doesn't spend > > its time or money writing software. It figured out that there were > > (almost!) enough volunteers doing that -- and that it should focus > > on policy issues (like DRM and crystal prisons and cloud computing) > > that threaten to subvert the freedom to write and understand your > > own code and run it on your own purchased hardware. The Free > > Software Foundation has, very infrequently, chipped in some > > thousands of dollars on specific projects, and gnash got such a > > donation years ago, but it was something like 1% of the total gnash > > funding. > > > > John Gilmore > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > Message: 2 > > Date: Fri, 02 Nov 2012 11:31:53 -0600 > > From: Rob Savoye <r...@welcomehome.org> > > Cc: gnash@gnu.org > > Subject: Re: [Gnash] There is another OSS Flash alternative. > > Message-ID: <50940389.8040...@welcomehome.org> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > > > On 11/02/12 11:09, John Gilmore wrote: > > > > > The Gnash team spent significant effort toward making gnash work > > > with AVM2, but AVM2 was very badly documented and we never got it > > > to initialize a working AVM2 environment. Then gnash's > > > traditional funding sources ran out (for unrelated reasons). > > > > I've often considered restarting a significant AVM2 > > implementation for Gnash, but this would be full-time work for many > > months. To launch such an effort would require stable funding at a > > level enough that a developer could at least pay their basic bills > > (mortgage/rent, food). Nobody seems willing to fund such a task, > > I've talked to most everyone, Google, Mozilla, Canonical, etc... > > They all prefer users just install the Adobe flash > > player. :-( Obviously these Open Source companies care little about > > Free Software. > > > > Note that this task wouldn't be adding AVM2 support to Gnash. It > > would be a new code base, with as much code refactored from current > > Gnash as possible. A complete rewrite of Gnash this way could have > > substantial performance benefits, but as mentioned, this could > > easily turn into a multi-year task nobody wants to fund. Also after > > several years of development, Lightspark is still barely able to > > handle YouTube videos, much less generic flash files. > > > > - rob - > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Gnash mailing list > > Gnash@gnu.org > > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnash > > > > > > End of Gnash Digest, Vol 64, Issue 3 > > ************************************ > >
