I tried out the Alpha on Archlinux. It was working great with much more stability and lesser CPU usage, but unfortunately, it crashes Firefox for me, when i open Gmail. So, i have gone back to Flash 10 x86 + Nspluginwrapper for now. Will keep trying it as and when they release newer versions.

Download Flash 10 x64 Alpha.

Edit: The plugin works perfectly for me now! Not crashing the browser anymore

So lets see.. What all is new.. On the linux front, i’ve migrated from Ubuntu to Arch Linux, which according to me, is the BEST distro out there! I love the fact how everything “just works” and how i have the latest software all the time. The best part is that its a rolling release, meaning no more waiting for updates or adding third party repos for new stuff. I evaluated Debian and Gentoo, before moving to Arch. Debian always had some or the other problem. It wasnt just stable enough for me. And Gentoo on the other hand was too time consuming and crude. Arch is gonna stay on my PC for a long, long time!

Also, i got a new phone. The Nokia N82, which again, is an awesome phone, but since im sure you might have heard a lot about it already, ill not talk about it here

Other than that, my life’s been pretty much the same.. (Yeah, i know im boring )

On the work front, im getting to work on some awesome stuff, so am pretty much satisfied there.

So that’s pretty much it! Ill try to be regular here, and post any interesting stuff that i come across

For Pidgin:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/pidgin-developers/ubuntu hardy main

For Firefox:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/mozillateam/ubuntu hardy main

After adding the lines, just type “sudo apt-get update” and then “sudo apt-get dist-upgrade” in the terminal (apt will give a warning about unauthenticated packages, but its safe to ignore the warning and type “y”). After doing this, you should have the latest versions of both Pidgin and Firefox

Steps to add the repository:

1. Open Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal)

2. Type “gksu  gedit /etc/apt/sources.list”

3. Go to the end of the file and add the following onto a new line:

## Latest Pidgin/Rhythmbox
deb http://www.telemail.fi/mlind/ubuntu gutsy main

4. Save the file and close Gedit.

5. Add the public key so that apt does not complain about any authentication errors (type into terminal):

wget http://www.telemail.fi/mlind/ubuntu/937215FF.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

6. Update your system (type in terminal)

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

7. Voila! You should now have the latest Pidgin and Rhythmbox!

Changelog:

New audio/video options

• H.264/HE-AAC codec support
  Flash Player 9 Update 3 includes H.264 video and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codec support that opens up a broad ecosystem and selection of standards-based video — up to HD quality — that developers can leverage in their applications. Supporting a subset of MPEG-4 Part 12 (container) and Part 10 (H.264), including baseline, main and high profiles, Flash Player can play back existing MP4, M4A, MOV, MP4V, 3GP and 3G2 content.

Improved Performance

• Multi-core support
  Speed the rendering of vectors, bitmaps, filters and video, including true 1080p video, with new multi-core support that takes advantage of up to 4 CPUs.
• Hardware scaling
  Improve the performance and quality of full-screen video through the use of hardware scaling.
• Multi-threaded video decoding
  The VP6 video codec now runs in a separate thread on multi-core systems, enabling true 1080p video. In addition, the responsiveness and decode blockiness of the VP6 codec is improved with this change.
• Image scaling
  A new algorithm for scaling bitmap images enhances the quality and rendering performance of downscaled images.
• Flash Player cache
  The Flash Player cache enables common components, such as the Flex Framework, to be cached locally and then used by any SWF from any domain. Use of the Flash Player cache can significantly reduce SWF file sizes and speed application download times.
• Flash Media Server buffering
  The stream buffer is maintained while a stream is paused.

Universal Reach

• Full screen mode for Linux
  Full screen mode with hardware scaling is now supported in Linux.
• Accessibility support for the plugin
  Flash Player 9 update 3 adds support for Microsoft’s Active Accessibility (MSAA) API to the plugin, enabling consistent support across plugin-based and Internet Explorer browsers.
• Mac Os X Leopard support
  Flash Player 9 update 3 now supports the Mac OS X Leopard operating system.

Fixed in this version:

• On Linux, modal dialogs displayed by Flash Player stay in front of browser windows but do not prevent interaction with the browser as they should. (191331)
• On Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7 Protected Mode may prompt users with security warnings when attempting to view Flash content after installing the Flash Player 9 (9.0.45.0) ActiveX control. Security warnings may also appear for users who choose to install the Google Toolbar from the Flash Player Download Center on adobe.com as part of the player installation process. This was fixed in an Internet Explorer update in June 2007.
• On certain SUSE 9.2 installations using the standalone player only, trying to Open a browser from the standalone player with SeaMonkey open will cause the player to hang. (193383)
• On Linux, networking operations in the standalone player are currently slow. (193158)
• On Linux, when the mouse is hovering over Flash content, keyboard input is not sent to the browser. (194265)
• Full-screen mode is not supported in the Opera Browser on Macintosh systems. (189140)
• Full-screen mode is now supported on Linux.
• Invoking document.write(..) method of JavaScript using ExternalInterface or FSCommand hangs Safari on next page load. This issue has been reported to Apple. (167996)
• The Mozilla Plugin Finder Service will not install Flash Player 9.0.20.0 on Intel-based Macs using double-byte language modes. Users may either install from the Adobe Player Download Center or use the Plugin Finder Service in non-double-byte language modes. (180719)
• The plugin version of Flash Player does not fire flash.events.Event.RENDER when wmode is set as transparent. (198515)
• Full-screen can be used when wmode is set (202290)
• Passing large amounts of XML through External Interface is significantly faster (206828)
• ExternalInterface now works with HTML objects that contain dots within the object name (199614)

Here is the list of security updates.

Fedora 8 has been released: “Announcing the release of Fedora 8 (Werewolf). This release includes significant new versions of many key components and technologies. Features: GNOME 2.20; Online Desktop; KDE 3.5.8; Xfce 4.4.1; NetworkManager 0.7 provides improved wireless network management support; PulseAudio is now installed and enabled by default; CodecBuddy is now included; CompizFusion, the compositing window manager that re-merges Compiz and Beryl, is installed by default; the completely free and open source Java environment called IcedTea is installed by default….” Learn more about all the features in the release summary and release notes. The installation DVD and live CD/DVD images are available for download via BitTorrent or directly from Fedora’s download mirrors. Quick links: Fedora-8-dvd-i386 (3,369MB), Fedora-8-dvd-x86_64 (3,800MB), Fedora-8-Live-i686.iso (697MB, SHA1), Fedora-8-Live-x86_64.iso (767MB, SHA1).