Flash Player 9 Heading To Linux
By David A. Utter
Staff Writer
Article Date: 2006-07-27
Development continues at Adobe to bring the latest version of its Flash Player to the Linux operating system platform.
Adobe developer Mike Melanson has been tracking the development progress of Flash Player 9 for Linux users. A recent post on his Penguin.SWF blog listed the APIs being used in this version of the software.
"I debated whether it was appropriate to publish this information," Melanson wrote. "Then I remembered that anyone who knows what they're doing should be able to figure this stuff out by themselves anyway once the final Player is released."
The API list from Melanson's post:
General graphics: X11
GUI elements (dialog boxes): GTK
Audio I/O: ALSA
Camera input: Video4Linux, API version 1
Threads: POSIX threads
non-HTTP Networking: BSD sockets
SSL: OpenSSL
IME: you know what? I don't think we've settled on this one yet...
Melanson opened the post up for comments from people who have been following the development of the Flash Player for Linux. They had several observations and suggestions about where the development team could go with their API choices.
GTK picked up a few comments, with one person noting that Adobe already owns Qt licenses. Others noted how Firefox and GTK play nicely together, a favorable point for a platform that has plenty of Firefox users among its devotees.
Quite a few also advocated the GStreamer framework instead of ALSA for the audio in Flash Player 9. And several pointed out how Video4Linux version 2 should be a better choice than version 1.
Melanson clarified the version 1 choice in a later post. He noted that while numerous camera drivers for version 1 exist, few do so for version 2. Also, with version 1 code already in Flash, it is much easier for Adobe to make it work with Flash Player 9.
As for the GStreamer fans, Melanson is dashing their hopes. "As for delegating camera input duties to GStreamer as so many have clamored for... no, just... no," he wrote.
Discuss this article with your fellow WebPros at WebProWorld.
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Tags: Flash Player 9, Linux
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About the Author:
David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.
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