The GNU project has announced the development of Gnash, an open source player of ubicuous Macromedia Flash presentations and applications.

Currently the Flash Player is distributed by Macromedia as a free download but due to distribution restrictions it can’t be bundled with open source applications like Mozilla Firefox.

Gnash will be available as a stand alone application and as a Mozilla plugin (like Flash Player) available for Firefox, Camino, Netscape, Flock and other Gecko-based browsers. When released it could be possible for Mozilla to bundle it with Firefox and provide Flash support out of the box.