Adobe Returns To Updating NPAPI/Linux Flash Player

Adobe stopped updating its NPAPI-based Linux Flash Player four years ago and planned to stop supporting it entirely in 2017, but now the company has backtracked on those steps with a commitment to regularly update their NPAPI and PPAPI versions of the Flash Player for Linux.

Last week Adobe quietly announced this change to begin supporting Flash Player on Linux again, rather than just the PPAPI version in Google's Chrome. Out now is a beta version of the Linux NPAPI Flash Player for Firefox and friends that implements Flash 23, a much newer version than Flash 11.2 that was the latest Linux build up to now.

Adobe does warn that this is primarily a security initiative and some advanced features might not be supported in the Linux builds, like GPU 3D acceleration and DRM video.

More details on Adobe's Linux NPAPI turnaround can be found via this Adobe blog post.