[kwlug-disc] Flash and Java

[Paul Nijjar]

In thinking about this refresh with our installers, I am also
wondering about Java and Flash player for Linux. For years you had to
install both of these monstrosities if you wanted your users to be
functional on the Internet. Now it looks like Java is less widely used
(and the openjdk support in Debian looks pretty good), so there is no
need to install the Oracle versions.

Flash is more troubling. As far as I can tell there are a bunch of
websites that will not work in Linux no matter what you do. The 11.2
version of Flash that Adobe supports is not recognised on certain
pages. Chromium (or maybe just Chrome?) supposedly had Flash built in,
but my version of Chromium does not work with most Flash sites. 
I have not tried gnash and friends, but my understanding is that they
are not ready for prime time either. 

Here is a concrete example: the videos on http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca
. I am probably just being dumb, but I do not know how to trick this
site into playing videos for me under Ubuntu or Debian. Do you?
How do you deal with these kinds of situations?

If there is no trick then maybe not installing Flash is the way to go,
both for ideological reasons and practical ones. I do not have Flash
installed on my personal laptop, and although there are things I
cannot consume in most cases I am better off not consuming them.
(Hello, Vimeo.) 

- Paul 

-- 
http://pnijjar.freeshell.org