From owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Apr 10 07:35:37 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: advocacy@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F40A316A401 for ; Mon, 10 Apr 2006 07:35:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mv@thebeastie.org) Received: from p4.roq.com (ns1.ecoms.com [207.44.130.137]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9EAF143D45 for ; Mon, 10 Apr 2006 07:35:36 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from mv@thebeastie.org) Received: from p4.roq.com (localhost.roq.com [127.0.0.1]) by p4.roq.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4B2594CD3F; Mon, 10 Apr 2006 07:36:23 +0000 (GMT) Received: from [192.168.46.101] (ppp166-27.static.internode.on.net [150.101.166.27]) by p4.roq.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1824E4CD35; Mon, 10 Apr 2006 07:36:21 +0000 (GMT) Message-ID: <443A0AC3.9020301@thebeastie.org> Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 17:35:31 +1000 From: Michael Vince User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD amd64; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20060216 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jeff Cross References: <4439B447.1080109@averageadmins.com> In-Reply-To: <4439B447.1080109@averageadmins.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV using ClamSMTP Cc: advocacy@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Flash Player on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-advocacy@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD Evangelism List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 10 Apr 2006 07:35:37 -0000 Jeff Cross wrote: >I have seen a number of e-mails lately about a petition for having a >native Flash Player for the FreeBSD operating system. I have noticed >that the flashplayer* plugin has been removed from the ports tree and I >understand why. But, what needs to happen to allow FreeBSD users to use > the Flash Player plugin? > >I just saw where Verizon and Adobe have come to an agreement to allow >Verizon to put the Flash Player on their mobile phones. > >http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/biztech/04/06/adobe.verizon.reut/index.html?section=cnn_tech > >Would it be possible to approach Adobe about getting this kind of >agreement for FreeBSD? I mean, their EULA says the software can't be >used on the Windows XP Media Center operating system (unless I have >misread this, please correct me if I'm wrong). There are a number of >laptops coming out now with the Media Center OS on them. Don't you >think they run Flash Player on them? > >I'm not trying to kick a dead horse here. Like I said earlier, I know >this has been discussed time and time again. But, I thoroughly enjoy >using FreeBSD. I rarely boot in to Windows any more. As much as I hate >to admit it, it just feels natural to visit a Flash enabled web site and >have it work on FreeBSD. Even though I don't visit that many (on >purpose anyway), when I do I like to see what I visited the site to see, >even if that happens to be Flash enabled content. > >I'm sure I'm not as smart as most of you guys, and don't claim to be, >but I am willing to help! > >Jeff Cross >www.averageadmins.com >_______________________________________________ > > I believe the only way this is going to happen is probably the same way Verizon got theres and thats with handing over money. I think if some one asked how much money it would cost to get Macromedia/Adobe to port/create a flash player they might tell us say $20k This could easily be reached since other fund raises for FreeBSD have accumulated large amounts of money pretty fast. I talked about this in mid March for the FreeBSD Java project on this mailing list as I noticed that Andre Oppermann fund raise was obviously quite successful. Also Colin Percival did a fund raise less then a week ago got his target of $15,000 Canadian in less then a week just to rewrite 2 programs which are already fully functional. Andre Oppermann got the bulk of his US $18k in just a few days, this proves that this style of fund raise model does seem to work every well. http://people.freebsd.org/~andre/tcpoptimization.html I have lost count at how many times I have seen people ask for flash and do petitions to no avail, I think the only way to do it is via a fund raise if you can get Macromedia to do the work as it couldn't really be much more then a port of the linux work that they must keep to the selves. Admittedly flash doesn't bother me that much as I am not much a multimedia guy but theres no doubt its a missing slice of pie in the FreeBSD desktop arena which is becoming increasingly popular. I mean FreeBSD as a desktop can make a lot of sense as one of the best alternatives to MS Windows and even Linux, simply because FreeBSD has less potential legal issues, no company can easily embrace even Linux with out the fear of another SCO legal case or start embedding custom binaries here in there that could interfere with GPL and jeopardize their upstart against Dell using cheaper OS's etc. The only question is does any one have the motivation to to the organizing of a flash fund raise, this doesn't take much technical skill just more business skill as your dealing with a external money oriented company. Mike