Thread: Adobe Flash Player 10: When will the update arrive? Is it coming at all?
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johnel is offline johnel
2010-04-13 , 14:12
Posts: 999 | Thanked: 1,117 times | Joined on Dec 2009 @ earth?
#158
Does this mean that it is possible for companies or developers to distribute Flash Player within their product offerings?
Adobe has removed the restrictions on the SWF and FLV/F4V specifications, not on Flash Player itself. Future versions starting with the next major versions of Flash Player and AIR for devices are royalty free as part of the Open Screen Project. However, a license (contract) still needs to be in place between Adobe and the licensee.
Personally I think Adobe are worried about HTML 5 and Silverlight.

These days Flash is mostly used as an online video player - HTML 5 basically makes the Flash player redundant.

Silverlight is Microsoft's answer to Flash and is more open too.
Moonlight is the open-source equivalent of Silverlight and is running on Linux.

Even if Flash does become more open as with Moonlight, then alternate implementations will always lag behind.
Also the possibility of "Embrace, Extend & Extinguish" rears it's ugly head again.

The Internet and specifically the world-wide web must be built on truly open standards - it's one of the reasons why the Internet is so popular - No single entity can control it.
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