Last updated: March 13, 2010
15. Browser Plugins
Many websites require various browser plugins to be installed to function as expected. Here are some plugins that you may want to install.
15.1 Adobe Flash
Flash is used on tons of websites for embedded video, animations, games, ads and sometimes even site navigation.
The package
flash-player should be installed automatically on the first run of the package manager, or you can install it manually (
'Main Repository (NON-OSS)' is required).
Installing Flash in the terminal:
zypper in flash-player
15.2 Java
Java web applets are used for games, home banking in some countries, and various other things.
Install the package
java-1_6_0-sun-plugin with the package manager to get Java support in Firefox (
'Main Repository (NON-OSS)' is required). If the package
java-1_6_0-openjdk-plugin is also installed, and Java webapplets don't work properly, uninstall it with the package manager.
Installing Java in the terminal:
zypper in java-1_6_0-sun-plugin
15.3 Video and Audio Streaming
To get support for various video and audio streams in Firefox, install the package
mplayerplug-in with the package manager (requires
'Packman Repository' to have been added).
Installing video and audio player plugin in the terminal:
zypper in mplayerplug-in
15.4 Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft have created something called Silverlight to compete with Adobe Flash in making the web require proprietary extensions.
As you'd expect Microsoft do
not provide an official plugin for GNU/Linux, but so far they have contributed somewhat to the creation of an unofficial implementation - Moonlight - it's available in the form of a Firefox extension, go to:
http://www.go-mono.com/moonlight/
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