Proponents of Free Software will be happy to hear that a project is underway to make a "free" version of Macromedia's Flash player.
The original GPLFlash project, which was meant to bring to GNU/Linux the ability to play Macromedia Flash movies, stalled when Macromedia released a 32-bit binary Flash Player for Linux. Because of that, and because of a lack of development help, the last significant update to GPLFlash was in June 2000. But in the past year there has been a surge in developer interest in the GPLFlash project, and now it's back, with greater stability and fewer bugs. Unfortunately, it would take a complete rewrite of GPLFlash to play the vastly different Flash 6 and Flash 7 file formats. That's why GPLFlash2 is now under development, with the goal of being a fully Flash 7-compliant replacement for the restrictively licensed Macromedia Flash Player and browser plugin.
If you've seen the recently redesigned Free Software Foundation Web site, you may have noticed that the FSF has listed three projects that it says the community is in "vital need" of help with: GPLFlash, GNU Classpath, and the GNU Compiler for Java. The reason listed for their importance is the allure of using proprietary Java and Flash browser plugins and proprietary operating systems that include them. A competent, free replacement for Macromedia Flash Player would remove a significant hurdle in the FSF's goal of encouraging a complete desktop GNU/Linux operating system that is devoid of proprietary software. Because so many Web sites rely on Flash to deliver content, completely free operating systems are limited in their ability to browse the Web. All that may change with GPLFlash2.
