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Adobe Systems has released a Linux version of its latest Flash player, the software that enables Web browsers to view multimedia content, such as online videos and those ubiquitous animated ads popping up all over the Internet. Flash 9 was released for Windows and Macs roughly six months ago. "Now the Linux community has full access to the high volume of Flash content and applications available on the Internet today, bringing Linux developers and users to the forefront of the Web 2.0 experience," said Emmy Huang, senior product manager at Adobe, in a statement.
According to Adobe, the latest version of the player can run scripts up to 10 times more quickly than previous editions, and allows programmers to write portable applications exploiting more of the capabilities of Adobe's Flex 2 development platform.
Good News for Developers
The release will no doubt be good news to Web site developers concerned that their multimedia content might not work correctly on the desktops of those running Linux.
The latest version of the Flash player also will give site developers using Linux access to more of the potential of Adobe's Internet application development environment, Flex 2, the company said.
The Flex platform includes server components for extracting data from business applications such as enterprise-resource planning (ERP) systems and, on the client side, for integrating with the current versions of the Flash player.
Changing Standards
Zippy Aima, a research analyst with Frost & Sullivan, said that with the increasing amount of content being made available to consumers across the Internet, Adobe's Flash is going to be one of the widely accepted standards. Red Hat and Novell already have announced plans to bundle the new player with their distributions of Linux later this year.
"Offering our users Adobe Flash Player 9 for Linux helps Red Hat deliver the desktop capabilities Linux users want, and is an indicator of the growing demand for rich Internet applications certified for Red Hat Enterprise Linux," Tim Yeaton, senior vice president of Red Hat, said in a statement.
"Compatibility with Linux has helped Adobe penetrate the market further by allowing it to work with all three operating systems and enabling Linux developers to access rich Internet applications," Aima noted.
Flash Player 9 for Linux can be downloaded for free from Adobe's Web site.