Why does swfdec-mozilla calls itself "Shockwave Flash 9.0 r999"

[Christoph Langner]

Binary package hint: swfdec-mozilla

On ubuntuusers.de we have quite often people who complain that Adobe Flash isn't working properly. They say that they installed everything correctly and that "Extras -> Add-Ons -> Plugins" say that Shockwave Flash is installed. But the confusing thing is that this is not "Adobe Flash", it's swfdec-mozilla.

So my question is, why does swfdec-mozilla calls itself "Shockwave Flash 9.0 r999" inside the settings of Firefox&Co. This is very confusing for users and supporters since the name and the version number don't give a hint that swfdec-mozilla is used instead of Adobe Flash? Can't we rename that to "swfdec-mozilla 0.8.2-1ubuntu1"?

[Benjamin Otte (Company) (otte)]

No, we cannot, because this text is actually readable by the web pages' Javascript. And the Flash tools use the string to determine if a Flash player is installed. So we must use an Adobe Flash Player compatible string in Swfdec.

It would be nice if about:plugins would produce more useful output though, like for example the plugin's filename.

[Christoph Langner (chrissss)]

Then you could enhance the text which is displayed e.g. inside the add-on manager of Firefox.

Swfdec looks like this:

Shockwave Flash
Shockwave Flash 9.0 r999

Gnash at least says that gnash is installed:

Shockwave Flash
Shockwave Flash 9.0 r999. Gnash 0.8.5, the NGU SWF Player...

Please take a look at the attached screenshot.