After ignoring Linux for years, Adobe releases Flash 24 for Linux

Adobe has just released the first final Adobe Flash Player stable release, Flash Player 24, for GNU/Linux in years.

The company announced back in September 2016 that it would bring back Flash for Linux from the dead. This came as a surprise as it had ignored Linux for the most part when it comes to Flash.

Adobe promised back then that it would provide a Linux version of Adobe Flash Player that would be in sync with the company's regular Windows and Mac releases of Flash Player.

A beta release of Flash 23 was released at the time with the promise that a final version would be made available.

This beta version was only available through the Adobe Labs website. Once installed on a device running Linux, browsers like Firefox or Pale Moon would pick up the plugin automatically giving users options to run most Flash content on the Internet.

Most? Adobe stated back then that the Linux version of Flash Player would not support some features, GPU 3D acceleration and support for premium video DRM for instance. The company recommended the Chrome web browser and its integrated version of Linux for that as it does not have that limitations.

If you point your web browser to the Adobe Flash Player download site, and there more precisely on the download site for "other versions", you will notice that Flash Player 24 Final for Linux is now provided as a download.

This is the same version that is offered for Windows and Mac operating systems as well. You can select 32-bit or 64-bit Linux from the menu, and pick one of the available versions afterwards.

The following versions are listed currently:

• Flash Player 24 for Ubuntu (apt)
• Flash Player 24 for Linux (YUM)
• Flash Player 24 for Linux tar.gz both as PPAPI and NPAPI
• Flash Player 24 for Linux rpm both for PPAPI and NPAPI

The release means that Adobe is offering the same Flash Player version for Windows, Mac and Linux once again.

The release comes at a time when browser makers such as Google, Mozilla and Microsoft are slowing phasing out support for plugins and thus also Flash.  The companies have or will set Flash to click to play to block Flash content from loading automatically. The next step would be to remove support for Flash altogether, but this will probably not happening in the next two or so years considering that there are still plenty of sites out there that require Flash to work properly.