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A few weeks ago, Macromedia Adobe finally released Flash Player version 9 for Linux. This is a joyous event for anyone who uses Linux and visits Flash-based websites, because v9 fixes a long-standing bug in the Linux version of Flash Player, whereby the audio would always get out of sync with the picture on any Flash video. The audio trailed the video by about 1-2 seconds, so any Flash video longer than half a minute or so was simply not worth watching because it was too aggravating.
Fortunately, there are virtually no worthwhile Flash-based websites in existence*, so it wasn’t necessarily a huge problem that Flash was unusable on Linux. However, the single good use of Flash on the internet -- HomestarRunner.com -- was severely affected by this bug, since it consists entirely of Flash movies.
But no more. I can now happily watch Strong Bad make fun of people and the sound actually keeps up with the video. Here are a couple of great Strong Bad emails that show this in action:
*Of course, the rise of YouTube means there is now a second (semi-)worthwhile Flash website on the internet. But Macromedia/Adobe left Linux users out in the cold on Flash v8, meaning we were stuck with the horrible buggy v7 for something like 3 years, long before YouTube came along.