Is 64-bit Flash support just around the corner?

A few weeks ago, I noted the explosive growth in sales of 64-bit Windows in recent months and wondered aloud when Adobe plans to release a 64-bit Flash player.

A commenter on that post suggested that Adobe was planning to unveil 64-bit support in its upcoming Flash 10 release, but I wasn't able to confirm that. This morning, a reader pointed me to an eyewitness report that Adobe has publicly demonstrated the Linux and FreeBSD versions of its new 64-bit player at a recent event for Flash developers. Alex Bustin, Senior Engineer of Flash Development for Sony in San Francisco, says, “I just watched Tinic from the Flash Player team demo two 64bit versions of Flash Player 10 here at FlashForward. One on [Ubuntu] Linux and the other running on FreeBSD.” He’s apparently referring to Tinic Uro, whose bio confirms that he works as an engineer on the Flash Player team.

I’ve been keeping tabs on Adobe’s site recently, and there’s still no word on when they plan to release a Windows-compatible 64-bit Flash Player. The current beta downloads of Flash 10 are all 32-bit only. Given the size of the Windows market (and the hockey-stick growth curve for its 64-bit segment), I suspect this is a top priority at Adobe.

Microsoft plans to release Beta 2 of Internet Explorer 8 before the end of this month. It sure would be nice to use that new software in a native version on 64-bit Windows with full support for Flash and Silverlight. If anyone at Adobe or Microsoft wants to add to the discussion, on or off the record, I’d love to hear from you.