Installing the Adobe Flash plugin on Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron"

By Hamish Taylor
Monday, 06 October 2008 04:43

Opinion and Analysis

In a continuing series of articles highlighting that GNU/Linux is a viable replacement operating system, today we're exploring how to install the Adobe Flash plugin for the popular Ubuntu distribution.

This is going to be a very short "How To" article directly addressing the concerns that loyal readers and commenters have raised in my last article. "Matrix" indicated that when he tried Linux he was he was unable to find and install the Adobe Flash plugin. So let's look at how to do that.

Firstly, we are going to take a leaf out of my own book and look at this from the "Linux way" or persective. As I suggested in my last article, using the Package Manager is the first place you should look for an application installation.

Go to System, Administration, Synaptic Package Manager. Type in your password. Click on Search and type in something like "adobe flash". Click on the Search button.

You should get two applications showing up. Having a look at the Description on the right-hand side reveals that the second one down states it is the "Adobe Flash plugin installer". Sounds like what we are looking for! Right click on that and select "Mark for Installation".

Now click on Apply (look for the big green tick icon). Wait a few seconds for the Package Manager to do it's job. Once the installation is finished you can close the Package Manager.

Now go to a website which uses Flash, such as YouTube and test if it works.

Whilst this "How To" is aimed at the Adobe Flash plugin, there is no reason why it cannot be extended to any application. As I have previously mentioned, using the Package Manager is the easiest way to begin searching for applications. In most cases you'll find what you are looking for using the Package Manager and it is trivial to install these applications.

In fact, I am becoming convinced that installing applications in Linux, using a Package Manager, is easier than Windows. Soon I will write an article outlining this further.

As always, please leave feedback, comments and questions. However, I will only respond to comments left on iTWire article discussion forums. The direct link for this article is here.