Netflix and Linux

[ch33zw1z]

I've tried a few distros(Mint 8, Foresight 2.2.1, Fedora 12), but I have a feeling it's not supported. does anyone know if I can make this work outside of using a VM?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Netflix requires Microsoft's Silverlight and ActiveX to function. It's no coincidence that

In March 2007 Reed [Hastings] (founder of Netflix) was appointed to Microsoft Corp.'s board of directors.

 

[Nothinman]

All I could find about using Netflix via Moonlight is a lot of talk about getting the DRM from Silverlight ported and integrated into Moonlight. But most of them were fairly old so I don't know if that's happened yet or not.

 

[DietDrThunder]

Frak! You just killed my idea of using an ASRock Ion 330 as a Nextflix box without having to buy Windows 7.

 

[Blackjack200]

I actually did a bunch of searching around for this yesterday. Seems like the only people running Netflix on Linux are doing it through a Virtualbox, which seems kind of pointless to me.

What's the point of Moonlight if it can't run Netflix Watch Now? Isn't that what 99% of people use Silverlight for?

 

[xSauronx]

I actually did a bunch of searching around for this yesterday. Seems like the only people running Netflix on Linux are doing it through a Virtualbox, which seems kind of pointless to me.

What's the point of Moonlight if it can't run Netflix Watch Now? Isn't that what 99% of people use Silverlight for?

MS's goal is to get silverlight used in place of Flash...whether or not netflix is the biggest user of it right now or not is beyond me.

 

[Blackjack200]

MS's goal is to get silverlight used in place of Flash...whether or not netflix is the biggest user of it right now or not is beyond me.

I guess I'm making the classic error of assuming that my usage profile is similar to the usage profile of a typical user.

All I know is that I've rarely seen Silverlight outside of Netflix. I understand what Microsoft is trying to do, but Flash is everywhere. I didn't even have Silverlight installed on my system before I signed up with Netflix.

 

[Nothinman]

I guess I'm making the classic error of assuming that my usage profile is similar to the usage profile of a typical user.

All I know is that I've rarely seen Silverlight outside of Netflix. I understand what Microsoft is trying to do, but Flash is everywhere. I didn't even have Silverlight installed on my system before I signed up with Netflix.

Flash also has like a decade head start on Silverlight, you can't expect it to become popular as soon as MS releases it.

 

[Blackjack200]

Flash also has like a decade head start on Silverlight, you can't expect it to become popular as soon as MS releases it.

They released it almost 3 years ago and they're on their third version. I guess my point is that if MS would like some more market penetration, perhaps they should drive support for Netflix in Linux. It's already on Mac.

I know I'm certainly not going to download Moonlight until I have a use for it.

 

[Nothinman]

They released it almost 3 years ago and they're on their third version. I guess my point is that if MS would like some more market penetration, perhaps they should drive support for Netflix in Linux. It's already on Mac.

I know I'm certainly not going to download Moonlight until I have a use for it.

As much as I love Linux, it's lack of support for the video DRM Netflix uses isn't going to have a huge affect on the popularity of Silverlight.

 

[ethebubbeth]

I have not used it, but Boxee has supposedly had netflix playback support in linux for quite some time.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I have not used it, but Boxee has supposedly had netflix playback support in linux for quite some time.

Interesting, I'll have to give it a shot. Thanks.

 

[sivart]

I've seen a lot of streaming radio stations using Silverlight by default.

 

[Fox5]

I have not used it, but Boxee has supposedly had netflix playback support in linux for quite some time.

Wrong, Mac and Windows only.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Wrong, Mac and Windows only.

According to their site, there's a download for Ubuntu 32-bit only.

 

[Fox5]

According to their site, there's a download for Ubuntu 32-bit only.

Yes, but Netflix does not work on the Linux version. Boxee can't support something that doesn't exist for the platform.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Yes, but Netflix does not work on the Linux version. Boxee can't support something that doesn't exist for the platform.

Good to know, but I didn't see on the site where it said that. Maybe in the future MS+Netflix will jump on board with Linux, I know I know...wishful thinking

 

[Fox5]

Good to know, but I didn't see on the site where it said that. Maybe in the future MS+Netflix will jump on board with Linux, I know I know...wishful thinking

They sort of already do.

Netflix uses Silverlight, which runs on .net.
There's open source versions of both of those, Moonlight and Mono. The open source development just has to catch up with the proprietary stuff.

 

[ch33zw1z]

They sort of already do.

Netflix uses Silverlight, which runs on .net.
There's open source versions of both of those, Moonlight and Mono. The open source development just has to catch up with the proprietary stuff.

In terms of Netflix, I thought it was due to Microsoft holding out giving the DRM away. If that's the case it might never happen.