Linux news

2007 07 12

Obscurity Fails Again, Time for Adobe Flash to Go Open Source

Adobe fixes critical Flash bugs

The last time Flash Player was patched was April, when Adobe repaired the Linux and Solaris plug-ins used with the Opera and Konqueror browsers. In March, Apple Inc. included a Flash fix in its 2007-003 security update that upped Mac OS X to Version 10.4.9.

http://s5h.net/u?z2590
Related: FCC ignores more than 100 years of wisdom

In 1883 French cryptographer Auguste Kerckhoffs published a set of six design principles for military encryption systems. The second of these principles is generally known today under the observation that security through obscurity is not security. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) seems not to have read the history books or to be aware of how its sister federal agencies develop security standards....

http://s5h.net/u?z8fef
Gnash - Open Source Flash

Gnash is a GNU Flash movie player. Till now it has only been possible to play flash movies with proprietary software. While there are a few other free flash players, none supports anything higher than SWF v4 at best. Gnash is based on GameSWF, and supports many SWF v7 features.

http://s5h.net/u?zd5ee
Ryan, Open Source, and Flash

A few weeks back, I had dinner in Seattle with Ryan Stewart and Brian Zug. Over the course of several hours we covered a number of topics, including a crash course in open source software. Yesterday Ryan posted some of what he learned during our conversation, including his conclusions about whether or not open sourcing the Flash Player was a good idea.

http://s5h.net/u?zbd34
Linux video - but for whom?

Builder AU, the official media organ for the Australian Linux conference, which is underway in Sydney, has released video clips of Linux creator Linus Torvalds talking about kernel development. But GNU/Linux users, the intended target audience, are finding it difficult to view the same. The videos apparently need to be viewed using version 8 of the proprietary Macromedia Flash player or above. Fact is there has never been a Flash 8 for GNU/Linux. After 7, Macromedia chose to release version 9 - on January 16, six months after it was released for Windows.

http://s5h.net/u?z8898