Using hacked Flash Player in unsupported Power Macs ===> 

[Guest]

Understandably, the current versions of the Adobe Flash Player no longer support Power Mac G5 (pre-Intel) Macintosh computers, as even Appple has dropped support for these "legacy" machines.

There is available a hacked version of the Adobe Flash Player version 10.x that essentially fools a web site into believing the current version 11.x is installed.  This makes it possible for us Power Mac users to view Flash videos on YouTube and the NY Times, for instance.

The question I have is whether in using this hacked version we would be risking either incompatibilities with other Adobe applications or retaliation of some kind from Adobe.

My gut feeling is that Adobe couldn't care less, of course, but I'm interested in hearing from anyone who has experienced actual adverse consequences because of this hacked plug-in.

Thanks in advance.

[chris.campbell]

I don't think it's risking incompatibilities, but I do have a few concerns.  As with anything you download, you always have to worry about the source.  I'm sure that most of these builds are provided by people providing the community a service, but it wouldn't take much for an unscrupulous person to put up an installer that was completely bogus. 

You're also bypassing the sites logic, that one can assume was put in place for specific reasons.  What this might do is unknown to me.

The other issue is more on our side.  We've seen reports of bugs that were fixed, but now being reported again against versions that should contain the fix.  It took a little bit for us to figure out what was going but it did have some people scratching their heads for a bit .

Regardless, I understand the position you've been put in and I've brought it up with our management team.

Chris

[Guest]

Thank you for your speedy and thoughtful reply.

Chris Campbell wrote:

… it wouldn't take much for an unscrupulous person to put up an installer that was completely bogus…

That concern is understandable and appreciated.  However, in this case there's no installer at all.  Just a single file that is dropped into the Internet Plug-Ins folder of the root-level library.  That's all.

The alternative would be simply not to watch any Flash content at all—ever again.  (Off topic but relevant:  abandoning the Power Mac platform is not an option because the new Intel Macs do not support the Classic environment, which is vital for some unupgradable and irreplaceable custom software.)

Thank you again.