I’m betting most of you don’t think about software versions much, especially for Flash. For those of us using Linux though, there hasn’t been a new version of Flash in YEARS. That hasn’t mattered too much, though people have started making flash widgets for ONLY flash player 8 or 9 now, and we don’t get to use them.
The first beta for version 9 came out yesterday, and the peasants rejoiced [yayyy…]. The developers have used it to play games and watch video, and can’t make it break anymore. I, being ever so cool, can.
First, the good. It seems faster. Flash widgets just seem to load faster. Flash 9 specific stuff all seems to load just fine.
On the other hand, video here at work seems to not work so well. It starts, skips, and then stops. The flash widget doesn’t die, the buttons all still work etc, but the video doesn’t go. At home on the other hand, video seemed to work fine.
Both places running Ubuntu Dapper Drake, with all the latest updates.
Is it worth it? Sure, the install was dead nut simple, and some things are faster. Hopefully now that there’s a beta out, the final will get polished and come out soon.