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Date:      Tue, 24 Jun 2008 11:03:08 -0600
From:      "Mark Carlson" <carlsonmark@gmail.com>
To:        "John Kozubik" <john@kozubik.com>
Cc:        jamie@bishopston.net, freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org, freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, narayan@neelum.com
Subject:   Re: Lack of Flash support is no longer acceptable. Bounty established...
Message-ID:  <bab706780806241003p14a4712dmf0c73ccbe3fbc2d0@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20080619135114.Y1807@kozubik.com>
References:  <20080619135114.Y1807@kozubik.com>

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On 6/19/08, John Kozubik <john@kozubik.com> wrote:
>
>
>  Don't shoot the messenger:
>
>
>  FreeBSD is not useful as a desktop environment without the ability to
>  support Flash in a stable, well-performing fashion.
>
>
>  Running IE in Wine is not a solution.
>
>  Running another OS in vmware to simply browse the web is not a solution.
>
>  Free flash alternatives and flash movie players, etc., are, unfortunately,
>  not a solution.
>
>  ports/linux-flashplayer9 _is_ a solution, however it (currently) fails
>  badly.
>
>
>  Solution:
>
>
>  First, a bounty has been posted here:
>
>  http://blog.kozubik.com/john_kozubik/2007/12/bounty-posted-f.html
>
>  We aren't even asking for new code, per se - anyone merely posting a
>  recipe that allows linux-flashplayer9 to run, without crashing and with
>  reasonable performance, with a generic browser (opera, firefox, konqueror)
>  can claim the bounty.  In fact, a recipe that is entirely inside the Linux
>  Binary Compatibility layer would be just fine - running the linux version
>  of a browser through binary compat is reasonable[1].
>
>  Second, I am calling on the FreeBSD Foundation to commit time and money to
>  ensuring that flash functionality is recognized as a high priority for
>  FreeBSD desktop use.  I am willing to donate funds for this purpose.
>  Flash 9 will not be the baseline forever, and it is inefficient to ramp up
>  a grass roots bounty effort each time Adobe releases a new product.  For
>  this reason I believe it is reasonable for the project itself to ensure
>  that Flash support is delivered and maintained in a timely fashion.
>
>
>
>  [1] Since we're all probably already running Linux Binary
>     Compat anyway...

I've found wine + firefox + flash to work for everything I've tried so
far (youtube, various websites with flash ads, one or two flash-only
sites.)  It did crash on me once, but I'm not sure it was related to
flash.  Wine is pretty good, but not perfect.  If all you need is to
visit flash sites, it's a decent workaround in the mean time.  Also, I
was very surprised how easy it was to set up (not having used wine
before.)

-Mark C.

P.S.  That's some ugly cross-posting you've started there...



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