It's entirely possible that you're correct. So do I understand correctly, then, that the components are present in Firefox, but Mozilla isn't allowed to activate them by default because of issues with their licences? If so, what does that imply with regards to my manually activating them?

Firefox, in its native form, is unable to play mp3/mpeg files, since FF would not be able to keep itself opensource anymore, the format of mp3 is extremly proprietary. Adobe and mp3 are not needed anymore (actualy for a long time), since mpeg is well replaced by amazing ogg, and flash is of no need since V8 js compiler made browsers actual platforms, but those companies hold industry badly by the balls. Microsoft has payed one bilion in a court for including mp3 into ie without royalty compensation, and ie 11 is still able to play exlusively only mp3 (!!!!), not supporting ogg (I have made ogg converter myself in an hour so where is the catch). Adobe is a pay-me-or-die player in industry the same way.

I'm... Not quite sure of what you're suggesting. Are you saying that the HTML5 player uses MP3 encoding?

For the sake of clarity, note that the disabled components in question are required for the use of the HTML5 Youtube player in Firefox under Linux, not for the Flash player.

[edit] Actually, a little more digging seems to indicate that the player does indeed use MPEG encoding. Huh. I'll confess that I'm surprised.

[edit 2] Bah, after digging for a while--and I'll confess that such research is perhaps not my strong suit--I've decided to just throw up my hands and activate the relevant components on good faith. Having done so seems to have successfully re-filled the resolution menu in Youtube's HTML5 player, and so for now I'm content to use that, and more generally to leave the Flash plugin set to "always ask".

You may all return to the topic of killing off Flash, and my apologies for the derail!

I've never gotten HTML5 video elements to work with anything but mpeg4-encoded video files.

Even super mario world speedruns rely on exploiting bugs that allow turning sequences of game events into executed code

Super Mario Land 2 has the most literal incarnation of messing with the game's memory.

I've never gotten HTML5 video elements to work with anything but mpeg4-encoded video files.

http://www.w3schools.com/html/html5_video.asp

I do not know wheather it needs update, but it says that Safari is exclusive mpeg playing browser leaving ogg out along with IE, I find it surprising.

Not surprising, when you consider Microsoft and Apple are probably the two who would less want non-restricted technologies to proliferate (remember that the whole deal here is that the MPEG codecs are patented while the OGG codecs aren't, meaning that anybody implementing the former legally would have to pay license fees and be required to implement any DRM the companies want while the latter wouldn't).

Even super mario world speedruns rely on exploiting bugs that allow turning sequences of game events into executed code

Super Mario Land 2 has the most literal incarnation of messing with the game's memory.

Imagine if someone from Nintendo's technical certification board returned that as an error to the developers.

remember that the whole deal here is that the MPEG codecs are patented while the OGG codecs aren't

That's not entirely true - or at least, not the whole story. On2 very explicitly holds patents on the Theora video codec, but has agreed to license them.

And MPEG LA just hasn't sued anyone yet for patent infringement over Theora (though they have indicated intentions to in the past). There's nothing to stop them doing so in the future, and nothing to say they wouldn't win if they did.

You are looking at this from a software developer's viewpoint. Whereas the main driving force behind flash is the designer community.

A lot of non-programers, are very skilled at flash. The designers I've worked with were very proficient with it. I haven't met designers who are proficient in WebGL and javascript. In fact, when I created HTML5 applications, my designers did POCs in Flash, which I had to manually convert to javascript.

This is because:

1. Flash comes with an amazing adobe "studio" tool suite aimed at these "artsy" types

2. The experienced designers have usually mastered flash

2.b. Javascript, and especially OpenGL are not things I would lay on designers to learn

2.c This leaves someone with the task of creating an "design" suite with abilities flash had, but running HTML under the hood.

2.d. Mobile browsing will drive this, but it hasn't happened yet.

2.c This leaves someone with the task of creating an "design" suite with abilities flash had, but running HTML under the hood.

Adobe's Flash environment does this *today*. It also produces native iOS and Android apps, primarily due to a lack of any Flash plugin on those platforms.