The much loathed Flash Player -- seen these days as little more than a resource hog and security risk -- had been cut loose on Linux. Four years ago Adobe said that the NPAPI version of the Linux version of Flash Player would only receive security patches and no further updates. Now this is changing.

Despite an overwhelming drive to move away from Flash towards HTML5, Adobe has decided to resurrect it on Linux. A beta version of Linux NPAPI Flash Player is now available and will be kept in sync with the modern release branch.

At the moment, Adobe says that it is only distributing 32- and 64-bit binaries. Proper installers are planned further down the line, but only after further testing and feedback. Fedora fans are also warned that Flash Player is not currently compatible with their preferred distro.

Announcing the change of heart, Adobe says: