Gnash Project

Since bug reports are pouring in, I figured I'd answer this in just one place. YouTube uses cookies to redirect the browser to a regional video server closer to the user. This got broken in Gnash around the time of the 0.8.7 release, as Gnash used XPCOM to handle cookies. I fixed this back in March or so by using newer features of NPAPI, which requires a newer version of xulrunner.

The 0.8.8 release of Gnash handles this correctly, but the user needs to delete all their YouTube cookies first and restart with a fresh one. That's all! For older browsers, you also have to block the YouTube cookies after deleting them to get this to work.

We just released an improved GNU Flash player, Gnash 0.8.8. Gnash plays SWF (Shockwave Flash) files compatible with the Adobe Flash player. Gnash is portable software released under the GNU GPLv3. It runs on GNU/Linux, embedded GNU + Linux systems, and BSD, including x86, ARM, MIPS, PowerPC, and 64-bit systems. It comes with a standalone player as well as a browser plugin compatible with Firefox, Chrome, Konqueror, and all Gecko-based browsers.

Improvements since the 0.8.7 release are:

* 100% of all YouTube videos should work. If you have
problems, delete all YouTube cookies and refresh.

After reading yet another blog post from a Debian user about why Gnash sucks, I need to rant. The problem is very simple, Debian has been shipping an ancient release of Gnash that was so old, very little worked with it anymore. This was due to several factors, but the end result was nobody was happy. I tried to work around this problem by building frequent snapshots as deb packages for Lenny on x86, amd64, and mipsel, which one can get from out own Gnash Debian repository

But most people never knew about this repository, so after a few seconds of staring at a blank window, they'd quickly drop Gnash and install the Adobe plugin. So much for being supporters of free software...

So the Gnash team is broke, and has been for most of a year. This has forced many, but not all of the Gnash developers to find paying work, and mostly stop working on Gnash. The few of us left focused on Gnash like to eat and pay bills.

We get a lot of bitching about lack of compatibility on some web sites, but we won't get more compatible without your help. And the way you can help is to contribute funding.

There is a list of tasks on the Gnash wiki we'd appreciate some support for. Please think what it costs an experienced developer to live at bare survival level. Most of us have families, and they're all getting a bit burned out by our support of free software to the point of long hours of work for no compensation.

The 0.8.7 release of Gnash has just been made. Gnash is a GPLv3'd SWF movie player and browser plugin for Firefox, all other Gecko based browsers, Chrome, and Konqueror. Gnash supports many SWF v8 features and ActionScript 2 classes. with growing support for SWF v10 and ActionScript 3. Gnash also runs on many GNU/Linux distributions, embedded GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, non x86 processors (ARM, MIPS, PowerPC), and 64 bit architectures. There are also standalone players for GNOME or KDE based desktops.

Improvements since the 0.8.6 release are:

* Automatic and spontaneous screenshots support in all GUIs

A recent post on OpenGeoData blog presents Potlatch 2:
"Fully rewritten in ActionScript 3".

ActionScript 3 !? Wait, that means NO more access for free software users!

Gnash is a GPLv3'd SWF movie player and browser plugin for Firefox, Mozilla, and Konqueror. Gnash supports many SWF v7 features and ActionScript 2 & 3 classes. with growing support for SWF versions 8-10. Gnash also runs on many GNU/Linux distributions, embedded GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, non x86 processors, and 64 bit architectures. There are also standalone players for GNOME or KDE based desktops.

Improvements since the 0.8.5 release are:

Open Media Now has launched a "summer of code" project for Gnash to implement a large chunk of the ActionScript 3 class library needed for swf v9/10 & AIR support. Some projects you can throw bodies at. :-)
For more information, try the Project Updates page.

Ever tried editing the free map of the world with Gnash ?
Surprise: it works !

Only, if you want to trace roads starting from satellite photos
you have to wait a lot for the downloads to complete, and in the
meanwhile Gnash is non-responsive making you wonder if it'll ever
complete or crashed...

Well, you can now donate for dropping that limitation :)

Press release: http://linuxpr.com/releases/11332.html
Donation page: http://linuxfund.org/projects/gnash/