Linux Community Magazine

One of the biggest complaints about Linux is that full screen Flash in a browser tends to have a choppy flickering effect that does not look very good. For some who want to experience things like Hulu full screen on their laptops or desktops do not like the fact that Linux and the Flash player are not working together very well.

There are actually a few reasons that this problem exists. The main reason is that the Flash plugin is a closed piece of software made by Adobe. What this means is that people developing software for Linux have to guess at what the Flash player wants since they can't see all the code. Typically with Linux software the code is open source. This means it is easier to make sure all the code works together since the code can be seen. Unless Adobe chooses to share, this will always be an issue.

There are a few alternatives that do exist. The first is to use the open source version of Flash. The problem with this is that it is not quite as developed yet. One day it will be if improved upon but it is not ready yet.

Another option is to download the flv and swf files and play them full screen with your media player. This will not work with streaming sites like Hulu but will for other types of flash files. In this mode there is no full screen flickering issues.

The last option is to wait for HTML5 standards which are going to gradually phase out Flash. This might not happen for a few years but it will eventually happen. Many are concerned that the browser is too dependent on this one plugin so its use is eventually going to be phased out over time. In HTML5 compatible browsers things like Youtube can be run without using the Flash plugin at all.