[DC LoCo] gave up on flash alternatives

[Ted Smith]

On Wed, 2009-03-11 at 19:08 -0400, Marti Martinson wrote:
> Well, I have finally given up on both gnash and swfdec. I tried both
> from the Package Manager and swfdec was the better of the two. Now,
> swfdec simply freezes when loading most any youtube page. Yes, I
> confess, I loves me some music vids.
> 
> When a close friend still lived in DC, he helped me run Red Hat and I
> did learn to perform the EASY, 3 step compiles:
> 
> ./configure
> make
> make install
> 
> However, I really want to run ONLY Ubuntu packages for ease and security
> of operation. Both gnash and swfdec related sites say, "Ah, the Ubuntu
> packages are old! Build them yourself....."
> 
> The cacao JAVA packages do not seem to have any problems vs. the SUN
> JAVA. I am still using those.
> 
> Just wondering if anyone else has wimped out like me and just gone back
> to the non-free Adobe flash.....
> 
> Marti

I've found that the version of Gnash in Intrepid works on some youtube
videos, but a truly superior solution is just installing youtube-dl and
watching the videos locally with your media player of choice. youtube-dl
allows you to choose the download format as well, so you can get
high-quality originals (in .mp4) as well as the flash videos. Needless
to say, it's much easier to extract audio from the downloaded files.

I have some non-free software installed on my system as well (nvidia
drivers, the madwifi HAL, etc.), but Flash, or any other Adobe product,
is well past the line for me. Adobe has a track record of buggy,
exploitable software riddled with privacy violations (flash cookies.
2o7.net, etc.). If you value your security or privacy, not to mention
your freedom, stay as far away from Adobe as possible.
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