The Adobe Flash Player is a browser plug-in that delivers an exciting interactive multimedia experiences to Internet users. Previously called Macromedia Flash the player is a multimedia platform originally acquired by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages. Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications.
Currently the Adobe Flash Player is non-free. See our section on software freedom to find out more about why software freedom matters and what you can do about it. The free Gnash player may be used instead to get many of the benefits of the Adobe Flash Player.