Is there an alternative to Adobe Flash Player?

April 24, 2008 10:19 PM

I reformatted my computer today, and I just finished reinstalling all of the programs i can't live without (Media Monkey, VLC, Firefox, uTorrent, you get the idea.) For some reason I think I remember that I had found an alternative to installing Adobe Flash Player. I really dislike Adobe Flash, though I'm sure its for stupid and mostly superficial reasons. Does anyone have any idea of an alternative? (not the one microsoft just came out with either.)
posted by Kraki to computers & internet (5 answers total)

From Open Source Flash Projects:

Flirt
Gnash

(there were a few more listed, but they were either quite dead or not meant for browser use.)

Note that neither of these are going to give you Flash 9 compatability, or even Flash 8, seemingly. Your best bet may be to get over your fear of the official player.
posted by Remy at 11:02 PM on April 24, 2008

You might be thinking of an lightweight alternative to Adobe Acrobat called Foxit PDF Reader.

That's the only useful Adobe alternative I can think of.
posted by Magnakai at 1:23 AM on April 25, 2008

Gnash is the main alternative. It is Free Software. Free software is released under a license (the GPL) which essentially gives freedom to the users of the software. They are not captive to the creators of the software. The contrast is with proprietary software. VLC, Firefox and the Linux kernel are all examples of Free Software.

Currently, Gnash can play SWF files up to version 7, as well as some features of the newer versions 8 & 9 files. Gnash supports playback of FLV videos and allows playing FLV files from YouTube, MySpace, ShowMeDo and other similar websites. Development of Gnash is now proceeding very rapidly. The first beta release was made in March of this year.
posted by Sitegeist at 1:45 AM on April 25, 2008

Flash is a proprietary format made by adobe. I dont know what youre looking for here. Its not a generic player like VLC. There's the OSS Gnash but its hardly a drop-in replacement. Adobe has, and never will, release the specifications to Flash so any alternative will be sub-par. Gnash only supports up to version 7. Adobe is now at version 9.

not the one microsoft just came out with either.)

This is not a flash replacement. Its a competing technology.
posted by damn dirty ape at 6:43 AM on April 25, 2008

I believe I've played some flash files with winamp, but I might be wrong about that.
posted by drezdn at 7:59 AM on April 25, 2008