Adobe is not dumping support for Flash for Linux. They are only dumping support for Flash for the older NSAPI, which is what Firefox currently uses. Flash will continue to be available using the newer API that Firefox and Chrome created (and Firefox has since backed away from for the time being).
It is assumed other browsers will implement the new PEIPR api soon. Chrome has this support today. Targeting more platforms outside the Flash Player is one of current themes of Apache Flex, but we are still a LONG ways away from it. -Nick On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 8:02 AM, David Arno <da...@davidarno.org> wrote: > As I'm sure most of you know, Adobe announced last Wednesday that they were > dumping their support for Flash on Linux. For people whose business is > selling Flex apps to Linux users, this is of course very bad news. What > with > AIR for Linux having been abandoned too, Flex's only real hope of a > Linux-based future lies with targeting HTML+CSS+JS (HTML5), rather than the > Flash player. As the topic of targeting HTML5 has been raised numerous > times > here, I figured it was time to start thinking in detail about how we might > do this. > > In doing this though, I started to question whether there was any really > point to it. Assuming we all wait for the FalconJS compiler to be released > early next year, then start developing it into a full solution, plus modify > the framework to support this, then we are I think realistically at least > two years away from having a viable way of compiling Flex to HTML5. In > other > words, in two years' time, we'll have a means of writing in one language > (AS3-ish) in order to create RIAs in HTML5. There are already the likes of > ExtJS etc, ie native JS RIA frameworks, available now. Would anyone really > gain anything from sticking with Flex for Linux and gambling on HTML5 > support in two years (and probably more than two years,) rather than just > switching now? > > The future of the Flash player for Windows and Mac seems as assured as > everything can be when dealing with proprietary systems. Likewise with Flex > on AIR for iOS and Android. So what benefit would there be in developing > HTML5 targets for these OS's? Surely this would just waste resources that > could otherwise be focused on improving Flex on the Flash player? > > I wonder whether talk of new compilers and targeting HTML5, combined with a > desire to stick with what we know rather than venture into new territory, > has caused some of us to form some basically daft ideas on the future of > Flex? Would we not just be better off accepting Flex on Linux has reached > the end of the road and it's time for the Flex community to bid farewell to > it and us developers that relied on it and to instead focus on Flex on the > Flash player on more popular OS's? > > David. >
