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joshuas38224777
joshuas38224777
New Participant
August 13, 2018
Question

Redistribution of Adobe Flash Player/Projector on Linux through Flatpak

  • August 13, 2018
  • 1 reply
  • 1091 views

I've posted about this issue over a month ago, but I haven't gotten any response so I'll post it again:

"Is Adobe providing official Flatpak support for their standalone Flash Projector on Linux a possibility? Flatpak makes installing applications on Linux easier than ever, as it allows developers to distribute applications without having to synchronize with a Linux distribution, as well as having an built-in update mechanism. Instead of targeting Ubuntu, Fedora, etc, you target fixed "runtimes" such as org.gnome.Platform which are maintained by the community to ensure that an application will run on any distribution. Bundling your own libraries is also a possibility if you want absolute control over dependencies.

Is it also possible for the community to create a flatpak for the Adobe Flash Projector if Adobe won't do it themselves? I'm sure that if the EULA allowed it that the community would put in the time and energy to ensure that it works perfectly. For example, the Brackets editor is maintained on Flathub, and while it is open source, it is still an Adobe product that people are willing to maintain.

I understand that the Flash Projector is a relatively simple application to install and use, but there have been times where I've had to troubleshoot missing libraries, which just shouldn't be happening in 2018. It also is nice when there's official support from the developer or the community so that extra features like desktop shortcuts, updates, mimetypes/extension support, etc, are available to improve the experience."

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

jeromiec83223024
Community Manager
jeromiec83223024Community Manager
Community Manager
August 13, 2018

This is a user-to-user support forum.  The staff that respond here do so as a courtesy.

We're fans of and participants in the Linux community; however, at the end of the day, Linux is a tiny portion of our userbase which consumes a largely disproportionate amount of time and effort.  It's also a platform that we can't monetize effectively, so any effort expended is mostly just an act of goodwill.  Adobe is a for-profit business, and we generally prioritize our efforts around a.) things that do the most good for the most people, and b.) things that keep the business healthy.

It's also worth pointing out that Flash Player will be EOL at the end of 2020, which is a little over a year from now.

Fulfilling the request would require a large engineering investment (our build infrastructure is complex) to support a new distribution mechanism, for free, to an audience that can't really be monetized.  Moreover, we'd be undertaking that effort for a product that's only going to be around for another year and a half.  In addition, since we test all of the installers before they go out the door with each release, we'd need to absorb additional, ongoing costs for testing and support.

In my view, it sounds like a noble goal and a perfectly nice thing to do, but the truth is that the existing deliverables work.  There's not a huge amount of pain to be relieved or a huge pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  It benefits a small number of people, and it doesn't improve our profitability in a direct or measurable way.

That said, I'm offering you my view on it, and am not issuing unilateral decisions.

You're more than welcome to file a feature request over at https://tracker.adobe.com/.  While we'll take that request under advisement, we're not necessarily going to offer you any kind of commitment or timeline.  If there's an opportunity to apply resources and it merits work over other competing ideas, we might choose to undertake it.  Filing the issue would get it in the queue, but it's a low-priority request, and there's a lot of stuff in the queue.

joshuas38224777
joshuas38224777Author
New Participant
August 14, 2018

>This is a user-to-user support forum.  The staff that respond here do so as a courtesy.

Understandable. To be fair, I didn't know the proper channels for this type of question and would rather use email since this is specifically about licensing and redistribution which Adobe staff would most likely have an understanding of since it's their software.

>It's also worth pointing out that Flash Player will be EOL at the end of 2020, which is a little over a year from now.

Yes, I'm aware of this. It's for the best that Flash is phased out in favor of a plugin-free web. Unfortunately that can mean two decades of Flash apps, especially the ones pioneered on Newgrounds and Kongregate, eventually become unplayable as a result and that continuing to play them inside a browser would pose a security risk. I don't install the Flash plugin anymore, but I do use the Flash Projector so I can play classic games on my desktop without having to worry about compatibility. Recently I've started using the Projector inside flatpak to provide some confinement in case a Flash app does become malicious and tries to access my webcam, local files. etc.

>In my view, it sounds like a noble goal and a perfectly nice thing to do, but the truth is that the existing deliverables work.

In my experience, this is simply not the case. I've had to troubleshoot missing libraries, which the average user should never have to fix regardless of the OS they run. There's also no built-in updating mechanism if you're not using a version of Flash that was already packaged in a partner repository like in Ubuntu. Flatpak solves both issues in a distro-agnostic way.

I appreciate that any support Adobe provides for the Linux community is an act of good will. Can I provide good will in return for what you've done for us? I'd be happy to put in the effort to put Flash Projector on Flathub, but what's blocking me isn't a technical issue, rather it's a legal one because I'm not very familiar with Adobe's EULA.

>You're more than welcome to file a feature request over at https://tracker.adobe.com/. While we'll take that request under advisement, we're not necessarily going to offer you any kind of commitment or timeline.  If there's an opportunity to apply resources and it merits work over other competing ideas, we might choose to undertake it.  Filing the issue would get it in the queue, but it's a low-priority request, and there's a lot of stuff in the queue.

Thanks. I'll look into it.

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