Gnash 0.8.8 Claims To Support All YouTube Videos, But Is It Good Enough?

I ran the Debian Squeeze Alpha 2 image the other day, and it happens to ship with Gnash. That build of Gnash is no doubt much older than this new "plays all YouTube" version. That version didn't play any YouTube videos. I was able to play some of the SWFs I use on my own sites, but those Gnash processes just kept building up until the CPU was pegged at 100 percent. I had a hell of a time killing them out. So Gnash = less than usable, at least the Gnash in Debian Squeeze Alpha 2.

They took 'replacing Flash' pretty literal, it seems.

Flash is pretty unruly in FreeBSD as well. You often have to kill processes out to keep the box running. As hoggish as Flash is in Linux, it doesn't pose quite the trouble it does in FreeBSD.

On a similar note, I had no idea until recently that when you call the Java runtime for something it just stays there running even when you're not using it so if you happen to return to it, it won't take so long to start up, and you won't think Java is the hog that it is. The trade-off is that it's sitting there eating memory while you're not using it.

The version of Gnash for Debian is positively ancient. There is a Debian package for the new one at http://getgnash.org/packages/ Try it. The difference is night and day.

Oh, Gnash (like Flash) does consume CPU cycles like crazy which is why I use Flashblock and enable Flash only on an as-needed basis.

I'm glad to know I'm not alone.

I tried gnash today after reading about it here, in Squeeze, and found it unworking.

Thanks, Caitlyn, I will try the "new" one.

The Gnash in Debian Squeeze is version 0.8.7 (this is one version behind the latest release -- 0.8.8), so it isn't ancient. Gnash does play every YouTube video I wanted to watch, but it got really sluggish when actually interacting with Flash -- like seeking the timeline, adjusting volume, and definitely annotations.

It works quite nicely with Homestar Runner, though.

I'm glad Debian updated their repo somewhat, but there is still a huge difference between 0.8.7 and 0.8.8. It's still CPU hungry, though.

I wrote a brief review of Gnash 0.8.8. See: http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2010/08/gnash-088-a-huge-improv... Feel free to comment, Digg, or whatever.

Oh, and yes, this was another shameless self-promotion :)