The State of Open Source Flash in Jaunty.

Although by no means an open source zealot, I really like to try, where possible, to choose an open alternative to software on my computers. In some respects, this has been easy, Ogg Vorbis, for example, has been not only an open, but a superior, alternative to MP3. However, one area which routinely bugs me is Flash. There are two projects out there attempting to deliver. Swfdec and Gnash. I gave both a spin on pre release Ubuntu Jaunty to see if they can compete with the proprietary Adobe flashplugin-nonfree package.

I tested both packages on the three flash heavy websites I would use most often. BBC iPlayer, Youtube and Last.fm. I used the packages available in the repositories, which contains the most recent version of Gnash but not swfdec. Unfortunately, despite the hard work of both projects, it just doesn’t seem to be worth switching just yet.

Gnash (mozilla-plugin-gnash 0.8.4-0ubuntu1) refuses to work on any of the sites I frequent. It will draw the various players, albeit slowly, but refuse to play the content.

Swfdec (swfdec-mozilla 0.8.2-1ubuntu1) does a little better. It will play Youtube clips with little or no problem, unfortunately like Gnash it will fail to play anything on iPlayer or Last.fm. A general aspect of swfdec that I really appreciated was that it did not automatically play any flash content. Instead it drew a player and presented you with a play button instead. A great feature for the bandwidth conscious.

I know that this is by no means an exhaustive test, however, for me, Jaunty will not be the release that I move to open source flash. However, this is no reflection on the Gnash and Swfdec projects volunteers, as their task is pretty huge.