Flash instructions updated

[Christopher A. Williams]

On Fri, 2009-05-22 at 00:16 +0530, Ankur Sinha wrote:
> On Thu, 2009-05-21 at 11:09 -0700, Adam Williamson wrote:
> > On Thu, 2009-05-21 at 13:25 -0400, Christopher Beland wrote:
> > > Based on the recent conversations on this list, I have updated:
> > > 
> > > https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Flash
> > > 
> > > If you use these instructions and they fail or you can otherwise tell
> > > they are incorrect, please either fix them directly on the wiki or let
> > > me know and I will fix them.
> > > 
> > > Hopefully this page can become a canonical, well-known resource so we
> > > aren't answering this question a million times.
> > 
> > As the page is generically named, and Fedora is a project with a strong
> > emphasis on F/OSS, I would suggest the page should more prominently
> > discuss and advocate F/OSS alternatives (gnash and swfdec) and position
> > the Adobe plugin as a fallback for cases where those solutions are not
> > sufficient. Also, it should refer more specifically to the Adobe plugin
> > when saying things like "Flash is Non-Free Software". WDYT?
> > -- 
> > Adam Williamson
> > Fedora QA Community Monkey
> > IRC: adamw | Fedora Talk: adamwill AT fedoraproject DOT org
> > http://www.happyassassin.net
> > 
> 
> i think fedorasolved would be the right place for this page??

I disagree. Instructions for enabling the proprietary Flash plugin has
historically even been in the Fedora release notes (reference the F9
release notes as an example) - even though it is proprietary software.

As such I would advocate that it is appropriate to keep it on the page
where it is now. I think it's also absolutely appropriate to note that
this is not Free Software, but that it is proprietary software which is
available free of charge.

If you want to note that there are other Free Software alternatives for
those who are more concerned with Free Software "purity" than they are
with if the software they are using actually works, that's OK too. I'm
trying to be nice here - swfdec and gnash are OK for some things, but
they lack much in terms of maturity and capability by comparison. In my
experience working with the with end users, they have been much more
trouble than they are worth. If and when that changes, I'm happy to
reconsider that position.

Just my 2 cents...

Cheers,

Chris

-- 
======================
"Only two things are infinite,
the universe and human stupidity,
and I'm not sure about the former."

-- Albert Einstein