Macromedia Announces Flash Player For Linux
Macromedia Public Relations
MACROMEDIA ANNOUNCES FLASH PLAYER™ FOR LINUX
Free Public Beta of Popular Player Technology Brings Compact,
Vector-Based Web Graphics and Animations to Solaris and Linux Users
San Francisco, Calif. --- November 24, 1998 --- Macromedia, Inc.
(NASDAQ: MACR) today released a free public beta of its popular Flash
Player for the Sun Microsystems, Inc.’s Solaris® operating environment
and the co-operatively developed Linux operating system. The new UNIX
players allow Web surfers on Solaris and Linux systems to view
beautiful, fast-downloading, vector-based graphics, animations and Web
interfaces created with Macromedia Flash‘ authoring software. The free
player is available today from Macromedia’s Web site at
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download.
"Flash content is standard on many leading corporate and entertainment
Web sites—and can now be displayed on UNIX systems," said Ben Dillon,
director of Flash product management at Macromedia. "With more than
seven million users, Linux has established itself as an important
platform. Solaris is a key operating system for Web servers and the
enterprise. Along with our support for the Windows and Macintosh
platforms and set-top environments as WebTV, the new UNIX Players ensure
that Flash content has maximum reach on the Internet."
"We are thrilled to see leading vendors such as Macromedia recognize the
momentum and potential of Linux," said Robert Young, CEO of Red Hat
Software, a prominent vendor of Linux tools and services. "This is a
logical step for Macromedia, considering that they opened the Flash file
format last spring, and that they have long been on the leading edge in
the Web Publishing space."
Today’s news follows Macromedia’s earlier announcements that the Flash
and Shockwave‘ Players are included with every copy of Windows 98 and
Mac OS 8.1 and higher, as well as on all AOL 4.0 CD-ROMs and downloads.
The Flash Player is also included as a standard component of all
currently shipping Netscape Navigator browsers, as well as in WebTV
boxes and the Real Player from RealNetworks.
Macromedia Flash products bring compelling, interactive content to life
on the Web. Companies using Flash to make their Web sites more dynamic,
faster, and more compelling for users include: Pier 1 Imports, the
Official Site of the International Olympic Committee, Mitsubishi Motors
UK, and more. Professional Web designers use the Flash authoring tool
to create and deliver compact, fast, and beautiful vector-based graphics
and animation for the Web. Macromedia Generator‘ is new server-based
software that uses templates created in Flash to deliver Web graphics
on-the-fly from dynamic, real-time data. Illustrators and designers can
also use the award-winning FreeHand‘ 8 to produce Flash graphics for the
Web. The free Flash Player enables Web consumers to display Flash and
Generator content that streams, or plays, as it downloads from within a
Web browser -- even over slow Internet connections.
ABOUT MACROMEDIA
Macromedia's mission is to add life to the Web. By providing its
award-winning Web Publishing, Web Traffic, and Web Learning solutions to
Web designers, consumers, and the enterprise, Macromedia is delivering a
completely new generation of Internet tools and technologies designed to
transform the Web experience. Headquartered in San Francisco,
Macromedia (NASDAQ: MACR) has more than 500 employees worldwide and is
available on the Internet at http://www.macromedia.com. Macromedia
also hosts one of the most engaging entertainment sites on the Web at
http://www.shockrave.com.
# # #
Flash Player, Flash, Shockwave, Generator and FreeHand are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Macromedia, Inc., as indicated. Other company
names, brand names and product names may be trademarks of others.