Google is working with Adobe to keep its proprietary Flash player alive on Linux. The two companies have been working closely to develop a single modern API for hosting plugins within the browser (one which could replace the current Netscape plugin API being used by the Flash Player).

The PPAPI, code-named 'Pepper' aims to provide a layer between the plugin and browser that abstracts away differences between browser and operating system implementations. Google will begin distributing this new Pepper-based Flash Player as part of Chrome on all platforms, including Linux, later this year.

Bad news for Linux?
Adobe blog says, "For Flash Player releases after 11.2, the Flash Player browser plugin for Linux will only be available via the “Pepper” API as part of the Google Chrome browser distribution and will no longer be available as a direct download from Adobe. Adobe will continue to provide security updates to non-Pepper distributions of Flash Player 11.2 on Linux for five years from its release."

What it means is that there will be no Flash support for Linux. You won't be able to install Flash on your Ubuntu or openSUSE machines. If you need Flash, Google Chrome will be your only option.

Interestingly Adobe has indicated that they will continue to "support browsers using non - ”Pepper” plugin APIs on platforms other than Linux."

This statement makes it obvious that Adobe was planning to discontinue Flash support for Linux.

Adobe killed its AIR for Linux last year and possibilities are that they were planning to kill Flash for Linux as well but Google jumped in to keep support for Flash on Linux platform through Chrome.

So, one can thank Google for keeping Flash alive on Linux platform. This is one of the reasons I don't endorse usage of non-free technologies.