Slashdot Mirror
Run Netflix On OpenSUSE
sfcrazy writes "Ironically while Netflix's infrastructure runs on Linux and Open Source technologies, the service doesn't support Linux, the platform. Netflix is available for Mac, Windows, iOS, Android and Chrome OS but not for desktop Linux. One of the reasons could be that Netflix still uses Microsoft's Silverlight which is not supported on Linux. However Linux users have managed to get it to work on their distros. Now openSUSE users can also run Netflix using Pipelight."
Instructions are here: http://www.webupd8.org/2013/08/pipelight-use-silverlight-in-your-linux.html
I've been using it for several week with Netflix on Ubuntu 12.04 and 13.10. It also works with Eurosport Player.
No. The word I'm thinking is plagiarism. With the exception of the last sentence the summary was lifted from the ./muktware site with only one word changed.
Dated much? Use of Pipelight to run Netflix on linux distros has been long available, publicized, shows for every search of "run Netflix on Linux", so...why is this here?
Intelligent idiots are we. | Evil men do not understand justice.
The OS doing the heavy lifting (serving the actual video, up to 1/3 of the traffic on the net during peak hours) is FreeBSD.
As long as he called it, please, "resarch."
You are new around here, aren't you???
Every BluRay player that has netflix on it is running Linux. so they are lying when they say they do not support it. My Panasonic BluRay states it runs linux in the manual and the License information, and there is Netflix right there on it.
Netflix does not support a generic distro because they dont want to bother supporting it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Why?
There is this thing called a tv with 40" inch screens
One of the reasons could be that Netflix still uses Microsoft's Silverlight which is not supported on Linux. (emphasis mine)
You would think this alone is the reason, but wait...there's more: -
However Linux users have managed to get it to work on their distros.
So, the same Linux that isn't supported can have Netflix run after all!!
Now openSUSE users can also run Netflix using Pipelight."
Ohh my mistake! This is Slashdot, right?
WOW even the summary is wrong
This is Slashdot. This amazes you why?
Wine may be perfectly crumulent, but I don't want it running on my network.
I'll wait until Netflix supports HTML 5, which should be fairly soon!
I would sooner buy a $35 Chromecast than install Windows emulation software (whether or not Wine is an emulator).
It's just some guy spamming his website here for page hits. Pipelight was already posted about here back in August.
Crap software from M$.
1) Set up a web page with the address http://netflix.com/linux/ which helps customers to watch the flicks under Linux
2) Become a sponsor of the Moonlight project
3) ???
4) Profit!
.. extract value from the OSS world to build the infrastructure; extract payments from customers.. What's missing? before I rant **does this company contribute back to the OSS projects that make it possible ?? **
The registrant of muktware.com in the summary link is Swapnil Bhartiya, which is administered through gandi.net by using a pseudo drop in a complex located at 4118 36th Street South, Apt A1, Arlington, Virginia.
People watch netflix on a computer? Why?
It saves space when your computer can act as the TV too.
Jesus H. Christ! Which of you half-wits let poor people in here?
Install the Android x86 libs then download Netflix native android Linux app from google play and it runs on any Linux flavor smoother and simpler than pipe light wine hacks
Various versions of Silverlight has been available for Linux for a long time. Not that anyone would want to use it. But lack of silverlight has nothing to do with them not supporting Linux. Or does the article submitter not even know that chrome, android etc are actually Linux varieties? does he think they somehow magically understand Silverlight.
As an obvious Microsurf troll I must re-mod you to plus 5 for frost pist, first post, out of the gate before the freaking horse jockey and a wonderful avoidance of the topic of the OP. WHICH IS WHY NO NETFLIX FOR LINUX DESKTOPS. A netflix interface would not even have to be distro specific it could work on all distros without a system wide installation and could be distributed as a simple tar.gz that unzip and just run from you home folder dead stupid simple unlike silverblight with all the system hooks and crooks.
The simple reason is that Nutflax like other online streaming a/v content viewing software systems does not see profit in coding for a limited number of users. OR the real truth which is bullshit politics from Microsoft, the MPEGLA, the RIAA, the MPAA, Sony, Apple and ongoing desperate measures to keep Linux distros out of the main stream consumer market. AND WHY DO YOU ask because they would get there ass kicked down the road by Mint Linux or even UBUNTU if the public ever caught on to how easy these systems are to use or setup, maintain, the incredible number of older devices like my t42 ibm laptop (that runs like a Russian tank in winter) and will not quit. And the number one answer is the simple fact that most Linux savy and experienced users are too cheap to send money to a cloud based ripp off moovee rental company. And like myself, believe that paying for today's garbage from SONY PICTURES, WALT Businey, TIME WARNER is not worth 8 dollars a month when Youtube and other interesting distractions have HTML5 for free and you do not even have to rely upon the assholes at adobe any longer. LOL GO HOME AND PLAY WITH YOUR SURFACE TABLET UNDER A BRIDGE YOU TROLL. GRRR let people who actually use Linux have the honours of getting in the frosty pist for a change eor // which means end of rand you uncircumcised moron!
This message was not sent from an iPhone because Peter Sellers really was a deviated prevert without a dime for the call
Fwiw, it's been deprecated. Windows discontinued support a year or so ago.
It seems to me it would be easier use it inside an Android virtual machine. Is there any kind of Android emulation that allows them to be run in a window on Linux?
*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
Android is Linux you stupid fuck.
This is an ad for OpenSuse, Pipelight has been around for 2-3 months now.
https://defectivebydesign.org/netflix
And playstation 3 also supports silverlight? Not a chance....
Actually no... Linux is the underlying OS to which the Android system runs. Saying Android is Linux is like saying GNU is Linux. It does sit tightly on top of Linux but one could conceptually port Android to run on top of another Unix like variant, say FreeBSD.
*It's not what you can do for the Dark Side but what the Dark Side can do for you!*
"Ironically while Netflix's infrastructure runs on Linux"... FreeBSD is a Linux now?
Saying that Android is Linux is like saying that Ubuntu is Linux. Linux is actually just the kernel, which they both use.
Various versions of Silverlight has been available for Linux for a long time. Not that anyone would want to use it. But lack of silverlight has nothing to do with them not supporting Linux.
And none of the open ones allow you to view Netflix
Ironically while Netflix's infrastructure runs on Linux
And even Phoronix managed to get that one right...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Literally true, but for historical reasons very misleading, because Linux has long implied a lot more than just the kernel.
They run FreeBSD and the ionly customers that matter use Windows or iOS.
I've tried to use Netflix on my Mac when for some reason it doesn't work on the TV. It works fine for Safari, but Chrome, which is my default browser, results in jittery video, unwatchable. Admittedly, not MacOS's fault, but annoying nevertheless.
I mean really if I have to switch browsers, when Youtube works everywhere is just ... wrong...
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
Ditto the other AC, and saying "Ubuntu is Linux" is entirely correct. It uses the GNU/Linux userland and runs Linux binaries. You have a Linux system on your computer after you install Ubuntu; it is not incorrect to speak of them identically.
Crazy hacks like this shouldn't be necessary, nor are they desirable even when they are all you can do. Netflix won't be a serious service until the protocols are reverse engineered and someone makes their own client(s), rather than having to limp by using Netflix's own code. Think about it: have you ever used, or even heard of, a service where the client software and the server come from the same place, and the result was any good? Imagine if the postfix team supplied your mailreader or if the Mozilla or Chrome teams wrote your web server. "Oh, I can't use that mailreader, because I use exim. Oh, drat, my site is a legacy written PHP4 on Apache, so I can't use the latest browsers. Damn, I have the latest browser but I can't connect to CherryPy sites."
I'll take Netflix's requests for my money seriously, when we have our own Netflix clients. Until then, they're just another AOL/iTunes/xboxlive "for video."
Chrome and Android, uses the Linux Kernel... However they are not GNU/Linux. Just like OS X isn't BSD.
The limitation that netflix placed on Linux, isn't technical where the Kernel just couldn't do the work, but legal and political.
GNU policy against DRM, while Netflix trying to get as many content providers as possible, is willing to accept that DRM Restriction as a trade off to give their customers more shows.
Google with Chrome and Android, are more open to allowing these restrictions to their systems, so companies are more willing to provide them content.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
It would be news if I could use Netflix outside the US.
...which is all refuted by a simple counterexample: MacOS.
Apple never bought into this bend over and say ahh deal which is why Macs support neither BluRay nor CableCard.
Yet they have Netflix player.
So it's clearly not "Linux hippies" that are the problem.
HELL. Two competing subscription streaming services run just fine on Linux (namely Amazon & Hulu).
Netflix upper management just decided to get into bed with Microsoft and make some poor technology choices. It has nothing to do with things "imposed externally by media moguls".
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
Yeah, muktware is not a great site for reliable information. They are in many ways like phoronix without the bench marking. He just trolls through rss feeds, twitter, and Google Plus posts for information, then writes a small blurb containing less information than the original source and often getting it wrong.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
In his defense, he means well.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
You can use Netflix via pipelight on any distro....and you have been able to for quite some time.
I assume you watch Netflix yourself, let me know if I'm wrong.
You know how when you see a movie in a theater and it has a conclusion that's full of emotion or has a surprise twist... and the credits start rolling and you have a moment to absorb what happened.
What if instead of having that moment, the film being projected shrunk to a tiny corner of the screen and trailers for other movies started playing?
"SO YOU JUST WATCHED SCHINDLER'S LIST. YOU MIGHT LIKE THE PIANIST!"
"SO YOU JUST WATCHED THE SIXTH SENSE. YOU MIGHT LIKE FIGHT CLUB!"
Do you agree that this would be annoying and would be doing the audience a disservice? (I'm hoping that you do.)
If you were watching a box set of a great TV series, would you WANT to see a still and a plot summary (rife with spoilers) of the next episode appear the instant that the end credits started rolling?
To me, this seems like a disservice, yet it's exactly what Netflix does. Worse, Netflix doesn't see any need to provide customers with an option to disable it. Are they so intent on encouraging binge viewing that they don't care about shitting all over the user experience?
I already registered my complaint (sans profanity) with one of their CSR chat people.
The only solution I've heard is to buy a Roku, but I'm not inclined to spend money on a device which doesn't do anything my PC can't do EXCEPT play Netflix content without crassly jamming suggestions and spoilers in my face at the end of a video. (And how can I know that this disease won't somehow start manifesting on Roku?)
I'm much MORE inclined to simply direct my monthly entertainment budget to Hulu Plus or Amazon Prime or some content provider that doesn't provide an experience that's qualitativly worse than going to a theater.
What say ye?
A binary blob isn't the point, and neither is "just release an API and the community will have something running (and self supporting) in a day... But that's not the point. The point is that mickeysoft paid netflix to use silverblight (or at least gave them a helluva deal) and as part of the package, said "no native linux support". We all know the community needs very little in resources to make flowers bloom in a desert, or cactus to grow at the north pole. The point is that mickeysoft wants netflix to go out of their way to make sure there is no support for the native linux desktop. Anyone with half a clue knows any Turing complete system (ie computer) can run any software. The words 'incompatible' was a curse word that mickeysoft marketing put out to drive luddites to their crapware. Of course it can run, but mickeysoft wants it not to, just like the DrDos fiasco 30 years ago. They go out of their way to break systems if they can, and let the user know. I remember the DrDos fiasco. Their software went and looked for the mickeysoft copyright, and if it didn't find it, it would stop everything (basically crash) and give the user the most gawdawful error message. Go in with a bit editor, change 8 bytes in one program from (C)DrDos to (C)Mickeysoft and *SURPRISE* DrDos could run anything, and better and faster than the mickesoft crap (I know, I did this myself). And is one of the few things the American Federal Courts slapped them for.
The FOSS version of silverlight doesn't include the DRM partitions needed to run Netflix.
"Don't Panic!"