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Adobe previews 64-bit Flash
Author: Gareth HalfacreePublished: 19th November 2008
The new 64-bit build of Flash Player 10 for Linux allows users running 64-bit OSes to browse the web using purely native code.
According to ITWire, Adobe took the stage at the Adobe Max conference in San Fransico this week to announce that it is making a pre-release version of its native 64-bit Flash plugin available for Linux users immediately, with Windows and Mac version to follow.
With all major CPUs on the market today supporting 64-bit and all modern operating systems also being available in 64-bit versions, many users find themselves irked that they are forced to run a web browser from a 32-bit binary simply to get Flash content working. I know that it's something of a pain on my 64-bit Ubuntu box – while the 32-bit Firefox install works reasonably well, there's always that niggling feeling that you're just not taking advantage of all that the platform has to offer.
While it's taken the company quite a long time to get around to a 64-bit native binary, the news that it's in the pipeline for release in the very near future is a good one. When asked why the company had released a sneak-peek Linux version without a Mac or Windows binary in sight, the company stated that “we chose Linux as the initial platform in response to numerous questions in our public Flash Player bug and issue management system and the fact that Linux distributions do not ship with a 32-bit browser or comprehensive 32-bit emulation layer by default.” The company also reiterated that it is “committed to bringing native 64-bit Flash Player to Windows and Mac in future prereleases.”
As if a 64-bit binary wasn't good enough, the company has also stated that it is working on a full-blooded version of Flash Player for mobile devices. While many handsets on the market today can play Flash content, they rely on the 'Flash Lite' system to do so – a cut-down version of Flash Player that is missing many of the features of its bigger brother. During the conference, working versions of a fully-fledged Flash Player were demonstrated on handsets running Symbian, Windows Mobile, and Google's Android software platforms. Conspicuous in its absence was the iPhone, which currently has no Flash support at all: Adobe's chief technology officer Kevin Lynch said that his company is still working with Apple to get some version of Flash available on the iPhone.
Looking forward to a fully 64-bit experience when you're browsing the web, or is it the mobile versions that have caught your eye? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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no, the primary reason nobody uses a 64bit version of their chosen browser is theres no 64bit flash plugin
how about you try RTFA?
The 32bit Flash refuses to install with IE64bit and is a battle to install with IE32bit on XP64. Of course there is no problem using 32bit Flash with FireFox and XP64.
http://www.sharms.org/blog/?p=265
As you can see now more and more PC builders are building PC's and installing Vista 64-bit as default to support the 4GB+ RAM that the spec comes with due to RAM being so cheap now. Plus more and more applications are needing high RAM usage so 64-bit will be the norm. We can see that Photoshop CS4 on windows is 64-bit native and hopefully the whole of CS5 will be 64-bit native in the future.
Games: Again this is taking forever. But we can see the developers of Crysis have been at the forefront at this with Crysis and Far Cry running natively on 64-bit.
Come on developers, stop faffing about and just start developing the applications for 64 bit and everyone will move to 64-bit.
If you need flash on a website to achieve an effect, you overdid it and lost my interest...
That aside, it's good to hear about any software finally being introduced in 64-bit versions. It's not entirely necessary for many programs, as most tasks don't benefit a great deal from 64-bit processing, but as long as the change doesn't actually slow things down it's a perfectly admirable goal.