Bug#678795: task-desktop: Flash support should pull in browser-plugin-lightspark

[Per Olofsson]

2012-06-27 07:34, Christian PERRIER skrev:
> Am I correct concluding that we can safely add
> browser-plugin-lightspark to the desktop task?

IMHO, no.

Gnash plays YouTube videos better than Lightspark. With only Gnash
installed, YouTube works better. I belive YT is the most important Flash
site. Having no Flash plugin forces HTML5 mode, and the HTML5 player
works *much* better than either Gnash or Lightspark. Unfortunately, not
all videos are playable (due to ads).

If you go to a ted.com video with Lightspark, you will get an ugly error
message ("We're sorry, Lightspark encountered a yet unsupported Flash
file ..."). However, with gnash or no Flash plugin, you get a message
about having an old Flash player and you are instead offered a download
link. If you click the link, you get the built-in HTML5 player (or
Totem) and can watch the video.

vimeo.com. Neither works, but lightspark crashes. Disabling the Flash
plugin forces the HTML5 player that works fine.

JW Player: Lightspark crashes. Gnash doesn't work. Disabling Flash
forces HTML5 player that works.

Lightspark seems to crash a lot while gnash handles things more
gracefully even when it doesn't work.

I think we should consider removing Flash entirely, instead of shipping
a plugin that only works sometimes and stops superior HTML5 players from
appearing. I think Flash is a dying technology that will be replaced by
HTML5 in time. When wheezy has been released, more sites will probably
have HTML5 support and the support will continue to grow. Flash support,
OTOH, can only get worse over time since the plugin will not be updated
after the wheezy release and things might break.

The big drawback with not shipping a Flash plugin is that many YouTube
videos won't work. But perhaps they will start work in the future once
Google has added ad support to the HTML5 player?

-- 
Pelle