This week, David Hayward has a look at
Adobe’s dropping of Flash, Ubuntu for Android and investigates a CoreBreach.
David Hayward has been using Linux since
Red Hat 2.0 in schools, businesses and at home, which either makes him very
knowledgeable or a glutton for extreme punishment.
We certainly live in interesting times. No
sooner has Linux finally gotten used to a decent and competitive release of
Flash, in line with its Windows brethren, than Adobe surprisingly decides to
drop Flash on Linux altogether.
According to Adobe, the Flash engine will
no longer be built for Linux after release 11.2 (which should be available some
time in June). Instead we’ll have to make do with Google and its Chrome API to
handle any Flash-based content.
This API, codenamed Pepper and known to
friend and foe as the Pepper Plugin API (PPAPI), will become the new
interactive element for the web. But, what if you don’t like Chrome? Although
there’s nothing from the Mozilla camp yet, I’m sure that future releases of
Firefox will deal with the sudden lack of the updated Flash engine.
Still, dropping Flash may come as a
blessing, rather than a curse; it could herald the new wave of HTML5 web
technologies, although Adobe is going to support security updates for a further
five years after 11.2. Either way, we’re sure Linux won’t fall into the gutter.
After all, Linux has an uncanny knack of reinventing itself when the evolution
of the computing world turns upside down.
Ubuntu for Android?
Ubuntu
for Android
‘In every dual-core phone, there’s a PC
trying to get out.’ Such is the slogan for Canonical’s new innovation, Ubuntu
for Android. This project aims to seamlessly integrate Android with Ubuntu via
a docking station that’s attached to a monitor, keyboard and mouse, so when
docked the phone switches to a fully working distro of Ubuntu with which you
can do all your usual business on. When un-docked, the phone switches back to a
normal Android-based smartphone.
Whether or not you like smartphones or
other mobile devices, this indicates a possible shift in the use of handheld
technologies. As the project specifies, you could easily carry your office, or
home, computer in your pocket ready to be docked and worked on when necessary.
Ideal for mobile workers, or those on the move, a virtual OS layer within a
smartphone app could potentially create a utopian business world of hot-desking
and better flexi-work, as well as an interesting approach for IT departments to
get their heads around.
Apparently, the system will allow you to
share your phone’s contacts, media and apps, including alerting you to an
incoming call via a pop-up window that will require a simple click to answer.
Will Ubuntu become ‘the killer app for
multi-core phones in 2012’, as Canonical claims? Possibly, although it will
mean integrating Ubuntu into the desktop side of the workplace – so in that
case, could the future power-phone feature a similar concept, but for Windows
8? Makes you think, doesn’t it?
CoreBreach
CoreBreach
- an anti-gravity racing game
As a fan of the PlayStation classic
Wipeout, I nearly jumped for joy when I saw this review on the mighty OMG
Ubuntu site: CoreBreach. CoreBreach is an anti-gravity racing
game that hosts the ever popular combat element by collecting weapons and power-ups,
as you race at breakneck speed along the futuristic tracks, to hinder and blow
your opponents to smithereens. There’s plenty to get into, with multiple modes,
a storyline, split-screen play and nice-looking graphics, but the best apart is
that it’s only $10 for Linux, and it’s available via the Ubuntu software
centre, or any other distro that can access deb packages. There is a demo
available at bit.ly/yYhUob, so get downloading and get playing. Until next
week, folks.
