I've been evaluating both Gnash and Swfdec for a few weeks. I've come to the conclusion that Swfdec is the superior software. Far more Flash content works with Swfdec than Gnash. However, Swfdec still hsa the same problem it had under Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon): it uses a full processor core when displaying Flash video. I spend some time today trying to track down the problem but was unsuccessful. It has been noted that the problem only seems to occur when using Swfdec through a browser such as Firefox or Epiphany. When I was looking at process cpu utilization I noticed that sometimes the browser would be consuming the CPU but other times it would be X using a large number of cycles. That, combined with the fact that not everyone seems to suffer from this issue, leads me to think there is a configuration issue responsible. However, no amount of changing the X configuration on my system made any difference. Still, video is usually still watchable using Swfdec though it does stutter a bit. And Swfdec's compatibility with other Flash content is much higher than Gnash. I would certainly recommend Swfdec over Gnash or Adobe's Flash player for Ubuntu 8.04.

I’ve been evaluating the versions of Gnash and SWFdec that are included with Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) and it took me a while to figure out how to switch between them. The /etc/alternatives directory has 7 links for flash plugins. The correct command for Firefox 3 is:

• sudo update-alternatives --config xulrunner-addons-flashplugin

This allows the user to select Gnash or SWFdec for Flash playback in Ubuntu 8.04.

Once again I tried to come up with a good flash playback option for my desktop which is running Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) amd64. And once again I’ve failed to find an option that I can call good. The only benefits I can see about Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) is that there will be newer versions of swfdec (0.5.4 up from 0.5.1) and gnash (0.8.2 up from 0.8.1) and that users will be able to use the update-alternatives command to switch between them. However I’m not convinced that either version will be usable though I’m really ready to be done with having a ton of extra packages installed to use nspluginwrapper.