On Fri, Sep 15, 2006 at 10:34:01AM -0400, Jerry McAllister wrote: > On Thu, Sep 14, 2006 at 03:54:38PM -0700, Chuck Swiger wrote: > > > On Sep 14, 2006, at 3:23 PM, Peter wrote: > > >Yes, the Flash issue is a real bummer. It is best *not* to show your > > >friends that when you introduce them to FBSD. > > > > Why? Is there some reason that you or they want to watch ads? > > > > I can't think of a single site that I use that needs Flash; I don't > > install it even on a Windows or MacOS X box. > > I don't normally use it either, but there are sites that do videos programs > that are all in flash and others that use it for graphic demonstrations. > So, it is a feature that is desired by many. It pains me to have > to reboot to Microsloth to see something on those sites.
You can visit www.linuxcbt.com (cue the Linux jokes) for an illustrative example. All the videos are in swf format, most likely generated using vnc2swf (available in ports, FWIW) or something similar. As a side note, mplayer doesn't support the swf format either. I once subscribed to the notion that Flash was wholly unecessary and the domain of ad companies, all the while knowing that there are amazingly creative sites (targeted at "creative types" or folks with "creative budgets") done entirely in Flash that most people, myself included, couldn't fault. It wasn't too long before I ended up installing the requisite browser plugin. Flash is now more popular than ever. And with Adobe's recent purchase of Macromedia, it would be naive to believe that Flash is going to fade away, or be relegated to a corner somewhere. Unwelcome ads of any sort can be blocked with little trouble -- it's the remaining content that's the problem, and there's more of it out there every day. That said, the linux-firefox approach does work surprisingly (or not so surprisingly) well, as does acroread (a must for those of us with notebooks or LCD screens). Doesn't mean I'm any less annoyed at the state of affairs. Or any more inclined to install Linux. ;-) Cheers. _______________________________________________ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
