On (Adobe) Flash
I despise it.
Being a Linux user for a while now, there have been very few instances when I haven’t cursed Flash for what it is. An abomination on the web. I have not investigated whom exactly to blame here – the list of shared objects in `ldd /usr/lib/flashplayer-mozilla/libflashplayer.so` or the actual shit that’s in libflashplayer.so or the browser’s interface with this blob.
Awesome Web 2.0(tm) sites such as slideshare use it and trying to view a presentation fullscreen is more painful than watching your laptop die due to overheating. I’ve given up on watching youtube on the browser too. These days I wait for the video content to load into /tmp and play Flash* file with dear old mplayer. Such is life. Can’t wait to get my copy of Windows 7 license now.
Yes, I’m beating a dead horse here but I post this at the backdrop of the news of Mr. Jobs having announced that the iPad(sic) isn’t going to have Flash on it. I don’t know if I’m ever going to use this piece of locked hardware ever – maybe it’s useful in the hospitals – but the “no-flash” stance makes me happy.
I sincerely hope that HTML5 and related bling really does take off and take Flash off of my laptop.
nareshovの日記 
no fun apple saying they won’t use flash… i hope firefox enforces ogg/theora and i think they MUST …
awhan
February 7, 2010 at 8:22 am
btw, you don’t need to load youtube videos in the browser; checkout the script called ‘youtube-dl'[1] (it’s just one file). I use it /all the time/ now. Although my reason is that my connection at home is slow, and my browser isn’t always on.
1. http://bitbucket.org/rg3/youtube-dl/wiki/Home
Nirbheek Chauhan
March 10, 2010 at 9:46 am
I use that when I want to queue up a bunch of ’em. Or if the video is long/huge and there’s a good chance the flash plugin is going to die midway (when I’m on a slow connection)
Naresh
March 10, 2010 at 9:54 am