Google’s Chrome browser has long released with a built-in Flash Player plug-in—the result of a technology partnership between the Internet giant and Flash maker Adobe. Though Adobe still allows customers to download a standalone Flash Player plug-in for Windows, OS X or Linux, the company announced today that the Flash Player plug-in for Linux after version 11.2 would only be available with Chrome browser distribution. The Linux plug-in will no longer be available as a direct download from Adobe. While one could suspect this news foreshadows broader policy changes on Windows and OS X, Adobe insisted that is not the case.
Flash Player will continue to support browsers using non-”Pepper” plugin APIs on platforms other than Linux.
Additionally, it will continue supporting Flash Player 11.2 on Linux for years to come. “Adobe will continue to provide security updates to non-Pepper distributions of Flash Player 11.2 on Linux for five years from its release,” wrote the company in a blog post…
The so-called “Pepper” implementation of Flash Player is an API for hosting plugins within the browser. Co-developed by Google and Adobe, it provides a layer between the plugin and browser that abstracts away differences between browser and operating system implementations. Google said it would distribute this new Pepper-based Flash Player as part of Chrome on all platforms, including Linux, later this year. Flash Player will continue to support browsers using non-”Pepper” plugin APIs on platforms other than Linux. Adobe surprised watchers by not including the Flash Player plug-in with the official Chrome for Android Beta distribution. Defending the decision, the company took to the Flash Player blog: “Adobe is no longer developing Flash Player for mobile browsers, and thus Chrome for Android Beta does not support Flash content.” Flash Player continues to be supported within the current Android browser.
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