marybeth's blog

Gnash 0.8.6 Released!

Gnash is a GPLv3'd SWF movie player and browser plugin for
Firefox, Mozilla, and Konqueror. Gnash supports many SWF v7 features
and ActionScript 2 & 3 classes. with growing support for SWF versions
8-10. Gnash also runs on many GNU/Linux distributions, embedded
GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, non x86 processors, and 64 bit
architectures. There are also standalone players for GNOME or KDE
based desktops.

Improvements since the 0.8.5 release are:

Gnash 0.8.5 Released!

The fourth beta release of Gnash has just been made at version 0.8.5. Gnash is a GPLv3'd SWF movie player and browser plugin for Firefox, Mozilla, and Konqueror. Gnash supports many SWF v7 features and ActionScript 2 classes. with growing support for SWF v8 and v9. Gnash also runs on many GNU/Linux distributions, embedded GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, non x86 processors, and 64 bit architectures. There are also standalone players for GNOME or KDE based desktops.

This is a from a blog by Paul Sweeting, Media Wonk
ContentAgenda

http://www.contentagenda.com/blog/1500000150/post/890041489.html

[A few links are in the original]

Time Warner goes all Flash - March 3, 2009

Gnash has responded to the call for upstream synchronization with distros, and has worked hard to establish a 3-month release cycle.
The Hackathon this week in Oslo, Norway proved very successful in putting out this release and making a roadmap for the next one. Gnash's next release looks to have more innovative improvements and will be out in January 2009.

Bruce Byfield writes on Linux.com about FSF's new campaign to raise donations for their high-priority projects. Gnash is an FSF high-priority project, and we encourage anyone who wants to to participate!

Gnash — the free software Flash player
Coreboot — the campaign for a free BIOS
Free software replacement for Skype
Membership and donor transaction and contact system
Free software video editing software
Free Google Earth Replacement
gNewSense — The all free software GNU/Linux operating system
GNU Octave — free software Matlab replacement
Replacement for OpenDWG libraries
Reversible Debugging in GDB
Free software drivers for network routers

For more information:
http://www.fsf.org/campaigns/priority.html

To make a donation to the FSF:
https://www.fsf.org/donate/directed-donations/high-priority

Read the article:
http://www.linux.com/feature/149424

Akamai launched an initiative for an Open Video Player based on Adobe and Microsoft technology. A few things concern me here:

They made their own license instead of using an existing license.
I question just how collaborative this Player will be--will the code just be available to download, or can developers truly contribute to it?
There is no mention of codecs, patents or other licenses.

Will this player be the great FLOSS Media solution it hopes to be? Or will it cave-in for lack of true FLOSS support? How can a FLOSS player survive on top of a foundation that is encumbered with licenses?

Rob interviewed with Paul Hudson from Linux Format while we were attending FOSDEM in Nuremberg, Germany.

View full pdf here: http://www.linuxformat.co.uk/pdfs/download.php?PDF=LXF107.iview.pdf

48 Linux Format July 2008
LXF Interview Rob Savoye

Quick as a Gnash

Adobe spent ten years making Flash, but it took Rob Savoye 1/10th that time. Paul Hudson
speaks to a coding maestro… Interview LXF107.iview Sec2:48 12/5/08 17:42:42
July 2008 Linux Format 49 Rob Savoye LXF Interview

The second beta release of Gnash has just been made at version
0.8.3. Gnash is a GPL'd SWF movie player and browser plugin for
Firefox, Mozilla, and Konqueror. Gnash supports many SWF v7 features
and ActionScript 2 classes. with growing support for SWF v8 and
v9. Gnash also runs on many GNU/Linux distributions, embedded
GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, non x86 processors, and 64 bit
architectures. Ports to Darwin and Windows are in progress for a
future release. The plugin works best with Firefox 1.0.4 or newer, and
should work in any Mozilla based browser using NPAPI. There is also a
standalone player for GNOME or KDE based desktops.

David "Lefty" Schlesinger is a member of OMNow's Board of Directors and we're proud to have someone as vocal as he on our board.

Rob and I met with Andy Rubin of Android fame and "Google Phone" rumor. We discussed Gnash as a UI on CE devices. Andy was excited as he exited the meeting, but soon afterwards sent an email saying that we could never work together because we were GPLv3. The GPL was an issue, it seems, for Apache licensing. Is Google open? Nah. But they're pretty wide...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/06/06/lefty_and_google/

This is a great blog by h3g3m0n outlining patent and codec issues for Open Media.

http://h3g3m0n.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/open-video-codecs-and-flash/