Adobe unveiled roadmap for the Flash runtimes today. The future plans for Flash browser plug-in include a very surprising and disappointing fact: For Flash Player releases after 11.2, Adobe will ship browser plugin for Linux platform only as Pepper Plugin API (PPAPI). The browser plugin will be distributed only as a part of Google Chrome, and will not be available for direct download or separate installation.

NPAPI and PPAPI

Adobe and Google are working closely on extending Pepper Plugin API (PPAPI) for browsers. Currently, only Chrome supports PPAPI as “experimental” feature. Mozilla has already announced that they are not interested in or working on Pepper at this time. Adobe has decided to shut down Netscape Plugin Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) based browser plugin for Linux platform. This means that Firefox and other web browsers on Linux will have to miss Flash Player’s future versions. Moreover, security updates for non-Pepper distributions of Flash on Linux will be provided for five years from its release.

Although, NPAPI based Flash plug-in will be available for Windows and Mac platforms.

Flash Player 11.2

According to the roadmap released by Adobe, Flash Player 11.2 is targeted for release in the first quarter of 2012. After v11.2, another version, Flash Cyril, is set to release. Cyril will bring various new features for the gaming market. Detailed information is available here.