Flash and Silverlight

[nakamurahdj]

Hi guys,

First time posting in here.
I did a quick search on this question on the forum but found nothing, sorry if this was already asked.

Will the Pyra be able to play Flash and Silverlight content?
From what I searched, neither Flash or Pipelight are supported in ARM devices, is there any workaround around it?
Or any predictions for the future?

I know these are two old and very inefficient technologies, but unfortunately they are still being used in a lot of web pages.

Thanks for your help, and I'm glad to join this community.

 

[FBnil]

Alas. At least you can see youtube with the embedded HTML5 player, so youtube "just works". For flash games and such.... not so much luck.

The backstory: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/pandaboard/7X-PszQBAAA

There was an anouncement about flash on ARM:
http://www.arm.com/about/newsroom/26062.php

But the existing flashplayer for ARM is build into products, i.e. not available in Linux.
Gnash, the free flash player, exists, but it will require more CPU power, and is not 100% compatible, but at least some flash sites should work.

More about gnash: http://www.wikivs.com/wiki/Flash_vs_Gnash?

And here an opinion on gnash on the rPI (similar hardware to Pandora): http://blog.christosoft.de/2012/08/flash-on-the-raspberry-pi/

As for silverlight, read this

 

[Caine]

In my not so humble opinion, the sooner those web pages die, the better.
The web is transitioning and there is no room for Flash or Silverlight in the web of tomorrow.

As FBnil answered, there is Gnash which sometimes works.
My point is, do not expect a lot of development effort will take place on improving either one.

 

[nakamurahdj]

In my not so humble opinion, the sooner those web pages die, the better.

I totally agree with that, too bad that it is taking too long to replace them.

I've been hearing about flash death for years now.

Let's hope the mobile boom will speed things up.

 

[ashcloud]

Flash, Silverlight, the unholy undying, such necromancy. Kill it with fire! Die already! Die and stay dead!

 

[Silent-Hunter]

What about flashenv from the Pandora? What does that use?

 

[nakamurahdj]

What about flashenv from the Pandora? What does that use?

Quoting from https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/new-pandora-use-flashenv.73330/

It uses the flashplayer included in the current firefox release pnd and some additional required libraries (thanks to hdonk).
it says flash 11 in the right mouse menu. it's taken from the firefox 26 pnd.

So, is there a flash player after all?

 

[slaeshjag]

Afaik, that's an unofficial beta release not indented for distribution. It got all the exploits you could ever dream of, is a bit buggy and fairly slow. But it does work. If it's the same version that I'm thinking of, an overclocked 1 GHz is just about able to play robot unicorn attack at a reasonable framerate. It's not something you'd want in a browser (and since it's softfp, getting it to work in a browser will take effort in form of installing a softfp browser). But in a separate environment like flashenv just to run flash games? It could probably run a fair amount of stuff.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Afaik, that's an unofficial beta release not indented for distribution. It got all the exploits you could ever dream of, is a bit buggy and fairly slow. But it does work. If it's the same version that I'm thinking of, an overclocked 1 GHz is just about able to play robot unicorn attack at a reasonable framerate. It's not something you'd want in a browser (and since it's softfp, getting it to work in a browser will take effort in form of installing a softfp browser). But in a separate environment like flashenv just to run flash games? It could probably run a fair amount of stuff.

That is what I'm wanting, something that plays Flash games and other content.

 

[Haraldur]

Qemu/Exagear + WINE?

 

[Dregoth]

I agree, let them die. Don't give those websites your hits. The Web, like the Pyra, should be full of open technologies (on the user end anyway).

 

[Kev2442]

As long as Flash videos work on pr0n sites, it's all right.

 

[Silent-Hunter]

As long as Flash videos work on pr0n sites, it's all right.

All the ones I've seen have also switched to HTML5.

 

[Wally]

I don't think it's worth even bothering with flash / silverlight, flashenv would still be nice for those old flash games etc..

 

[Silent-Hunter]

Agreed. I'm not sure I would actually WANT Flash to work in the browser, unless it worked well.

 

[WizardStan]

Indeed. I've got flashblock and trying to watch the olympics online was the first time in months that I've needed to disable it.