You don't use open source software because it's better (it usually isn't).

[lenni@fosstodon.org]

@LordCaramac @RogerBW @mcc The website has an (archived) link to the tarball with the source code: https://web.archive.org/web/20050901030734/http://www.pale.org/sapphire/sapphire_19.tgz (If the downloaded file ends in .txt for you as well just remove/change that extension to .tgz)

[bit101@mstdn.social]

@mcc I was also a true devotee, but my grief ran its course more than a decade ago.

[lordcaramac@discordian.social]

@Lenni @RogerBW @mcc Already ahead of you, looking at the content right now. I'm a horrible dilettante of a coder though, I don't think I can fix it.

[bit101@mstdn.social]

@mcc I can still get extremely nostalgic about it though.

[waha_06x36@mastodon.social]

@mcc What... what does this announcement even MEAN.

You can keep using it... but you won't have access to your files? What are you TALKING about

[mcc@mastodon.social]

@WAHa_06x36 Look more carefully at the dates. They are saying you may keep using it past the official discontinuation on 2026 March 1, but you CANNOT use it past 2027 March 1, so on that second date presumably you will lose access to your files.

[waha_06x36@mastodon.social]

@mcc Oh. SIGH.

[lexfeathers@tenforward.social]

@mcc holy shit

[mcc@mastodon.social]

@lexfeathers Capitalism literally incompatible with software

[lexfeathers@tenforward.social]

@mcc Flash MX 2004 and Flash 8 are pieces of software permanently burned into my psyche, this is so sad

[dmaonr@mastodon.online]

@LordCaramac
You might want to look into running the software on an old linux version in a VM.

Yes an old Linux is unsupported and probably full of security holes. Don't let the vm talk to the Internet and you should be fine.

[lancejz@mastodon.social]

@mcc Blender is better.

[eedly@mindly.social]

@mcc Hilarious to recount the history of Flash while not mentioning that one awful company, the one that also owned Director and FreeHand and DreamWeaver and, I dunno, Swivel 3D or something.

[mcc@mastodon.social]

@eedly HECK! I'm kinda sick today and off my game. Also I thought Macromedia was good.

[feoh@oldbytes.space]

@mcc Sorry to hear, but IMO not surprising.

We're caught between the devil of late stage enshittification and the deep blue sea that is all the money FLYING out of the personal computer market.

[lordcaramac@discordian.social]

@Lenni @RogerBW @mcc I haven't tried that on a recent Linux lately; the last time I tried it, eight years ago IIRC, it didn't work.

[lordcaramac@discordian.social]

@dmaonR I would need a Linux from ~2008 for that, I think.

[mcc@mastodon.social]

@LordCaramac @Lenni @RogerBW hey just out of curiosity is this a GUI app or a command line app?

[lordcaramac@discordian.social]

@mcc @Lenni @RogerBW It's a command line app. It's an acoustic compiler that uses a text file with Sapphire code as input and creates .wav output.

[eedly@mindly.social]

@mcc I came from the Director side of things, and Macromedia's decision to have two flagship animation apps with UIs and workflows that looked very similar but were largely incompatible (I'm forgetting details here; it's been decades) was super frustrating.

The place I worked composited animations in Director and exported them using Lingo scripts and proprietary tools, and recreating that workflow from scratch for Flash was kind of a nonstarter.