Adobe has released the very first alpha version of a 64-bit Flash Player for Linux. This move is part of the company's broader plans to provide comprehensive 64-bit support for the widely-used browser plugin. Adobe expects to release 64-bit versions for all three platforms with the next major version of Flash Player.
Although Adobe decided to start with Linux, the company says that 64-bit builds for all three major platforms will be released simultaneously with the next major version of Flash Player. Adobe chose Linux as the starting point because 64-bit software is supported pervasively in the Linux ecosystem and because Linux users have expressed the most demand for 64-bit Flash.
Despite Adobe's efforts to improve the quality of the Flash Player user experience for Linux enthusiasts, the lack of a proper 64-bit version created significant problems. In the early days, 64-bit Linux users had to run 32-bit browsers inside of a chroot jail or use a 32-bit browser linked against a full set of 32-bit libraries. Eventually, nspluginwrapper emerged and provided cross-architecture support for 32-bit browser plugins in some browsers. It worked, but it was a suboptimal solution with a lot of problems.
