Flash support on the Linux desktop caught up with its Windows counterpart on Thursday as Macromedia Inc. released an updated Flash Player for the open-source operating system.
The San Francisco-based company launched Flash Player 7 for Linux, about nine months after it released its newest Flash version for the Windows and Mac OS X operating systems.
With the Linux version of Flash Player 7, Macromedia has added support for Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) Web services and for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), said Waleed Anbar, Macromedia Flash Player product manager. The new version also features performance and security enhancements.
“Our fundamental driving force was to bring the Flash Player to as many desktops as we can,” Anbar said about the Linux update. Flash Player is installed on 98 percent of desktops with Internet access, according to Macromedia.
Macromedia collaborated with Sun Microsystems Inc. in the development of the latest Flash Player for Linux, and the player is bundled with the Sun Java Desktop System 1.0. It also is included in Linux distributions from Red Hat Inc., Novell Inc. and Turbolinux Inc. These include Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0, Turbolinux 10 Desktop, the Ximian Desktop and SuSE Linux 9, a Macromedia spokeswoman said.
The Macromedia Flash Player is a multimedia Internet client that combines graphics, video, audio and data. It runs Internet applications created with Macromedias Flex presentation server as well as content created with its Flash authoring tool.
/zimages/1/28571.gifClick hereto read an eWEEK Labs review of Macromedias Flex authoring environment.
Flash Player 7 for Linux is available as a free download.
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