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."

Comments

Works like a charm on Ubuntu two

[jonnyj]

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.

Re:Works like a charm on Ubuntu two

[LWATCDR]

Now just put that into SteamOS...

Re:Works like a charm on Ubuntu two

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't be much more difficult than any other distro.

Re:Works like a charm on Ubuntu two

[DavidClarkeHR]

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.

Great. Now get it working on QNX, and my blackberry playbook is useful. In 2011.

Re:Works like a charm on Ubuntu two

[LWATCDR]

Nope but it really should be built in.

Ironic?

[PNutts]

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.

Slow day?

[infinitelink]

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?

Re:Slow day?

[msobkow]

Yeah, but the submitter hadn't tried it, so that makes it "news".

Don't forget FreeBSD

[ZorkZero]

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.

Re:Don't forget FreeBSD

[VortexCortex]

"serving the actual video, up to 1/3 of the traffic on the net" - Huh, that's strange. Are you sure? Because caching and collocation is a thing, you know?

Re:Don't forget FreeBSD

[utkonos]

Yep. Article is incorrect about Netflix running its infrastructure on Linux. It is running it on FreeBSD.

Re:Don't forget FreeBSD

[CrankyFool]

I work at Netflix, on the Cloud and Platform Engineering side, responsible for doing some stuff in the cloud. We use both Linux and FreeBSD -- Our cloud infrastructure runs on Linux, so all the API calls, license calls, logging in etc is hitting Linux servers. And once you start downloading a movie, you're downloading it from one of our caches, which runs on FreeBSD.

Re:Don't forget FreeBSD

[TheRaven64]

Not the original poster, but yes, I'm sure. Well, not quite. He meant to say 1/3 of the traffic on the Internet in the USA, but this is Slashdot and so the Internet and the USA get mixed up quite often. Netflix runs their own CDN, which runs FreeBSD. Scott Long has given a few talks about their infrastructure. They do some quite crazy things with aio to pull 1MB chunks of a load of films into RAM and then dump them out over the network (it turns out people seek quite a lot, so being too aggressive in the prefetching isn't always a win, and you've got a lot of concurrent clients so it's easy to run out of RAM if you pull too much in).

I don't see a problem.

[barlevg]

As long as he called it, please, "resarch."

Re:I don't see a problem.

[barlevg]

bah, stupid fat fingers. Obviously that should have read "research," unless you buy that I was going for a Russian accent there...

Re:I don't see a problem.

[hcs_$reboot]

If only a post "preview" was available..

Re:I don't see a problem.

[hawk]

No, you need to plagiarize two separate sources to be research . . .

hawk, former academic

Re:Right...

[infinitelink]

Unfortunately, no. It's not that I am unaware that Slashdot lags, just surprised at the greatness of lag in this particular instance. I mean, it is a lag of many months or more, not days or weeks. Pipelight's been around a while--check out Slashdot's own earlier story: http://slashdot.org/story/13/08/19/2311245/netflix-comes-to-linux-web-browsers-via-pipelight One wonders whether the editors (there are editors, right?) here actually pay attention to submission or if it's all auto-run.

Netflix runs on linux.

[Lumpy]

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.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[zippthorne]

They don't have to support linux. All they need to do is provide an API and the community will take care of it for them. Not sure how the DRM part would work, though. Is DRM possible with open source software? Could they provide binary blob of just that part?

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[Anonymous Coward]

Uhm, I run linux on my servers AND it's my primary computer OS. Linux has been my primary desktop for well over 10 years now. We are not a 1% user base and since we actually know a thing or two about computers we demand a proportionately smaller amount of support time. In fact, I'd argue that we as linux users are more often than not providing support to the front line phone personal by pointing them directly to the problem.

The media industry simply refuses to allow any media play back no a device or OS that isn't completely locked down. THAT is why there is no native linux client.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[TheRealMindChild]

The code to run netflix on your Bluray player and any other smart appliance has a binary blob they interface with to do the actual work. They can't "release the source" and honestly, the solution is different for every smart appliance out there, even if it runs linux

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[Bengie]

Yes, running Linux with a custom DRM binary. You can get the GPL'd Linux code form the Bluray maker, but you won't get the part that's required to decode the streams.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[gl4ss]

well, that's what pipelight amounts to.

but if pipelight doesn't honor hdcp shit, then they're screwed if they officially support it.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[DarwinSurvivor]

Pipelight is a LOT more than a binary blob DRM module. It is an entire instance of Silverlight running in Wine. My laptop hits 100 celcius with the fan at FULL speed watching Netflix. I can do full 3D gaming and it only hits about 70 or 80.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[Gavagai80]

Meanwhile, that same media industry has most of their content on Hulu supporting linux perfectly. No, it's not the media, it's netflix.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[TheRaven64]

More to the point, they also support an Android app, which means that they support most consumer Linux installs.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[mcgrew]

That's why I haven't gotten silverfish or Netflix. I wonder, though, maybe I could run another instance of Linux, or maybe Chrome dual-boot or in a VM?

Nah, still wouldn't trust it. It would have to be on a box dedicated to Netflix.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[rosseloh]

Nothing wrong with that. 10 Years in 2013 is close to half the time "Linux" has been available.

Besides, that AC could very well be like me: relatively young. I was 14 ten years ago. I didn't start playing with Linux and the like until maybe 2006, but that doesn't mean I can't feel slightly proud that I eventually figured it out, even if it's 2013.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[Lumpy]

They dont even need to do that. Ship a statically compiled binary. Yes it will make all the purists whine from here to hell and back but it will be an option. deliver it with no support at all and make people click through 3 times a "we will hang up on you if you call us about this." dialog box.

It is a no brainer to release something, and in fact it would be awesome as XBMC people could use it as a netflix plugin by just calling the app.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[Lumpy]

Your laptop has a crap video processor. get one with a real Nvidia or ATI chipset that does video decoding and it will drop to 4%. Both my Macbook pro and my Dell gaming laptop that both have a real video chipset in them pretty much idle when playing a video from netflix or Hulu Plus.

Intel chipsets are still complete garbage.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[Lumpy]

nobody asked them to release the source. just release the binary blob.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[houghi]

They are not lying. What it generally means is that there will be no support given, nor any effort to make it work. They do not say that it won't work.

In the various companies I have worked, we never supported Linux (and I am talking just webpages here) and sometimes even only Internet Explorer specific versions. This means that if you have Firefox on Linux, we will verify if you filled out things correctly and if that does not help, you are on your own. I will not open a ticket. I will not do any updates. It worked yesterday and not today? Though luck.
(Ok, we might give hints like deleting cookies)

The reason is indeed money. Not so much because we do not want to do it, but because we would have no idea where the end of the cost would be.

With Windows and the most recent browsers, we cover easily 95% of the possible people with problems (and that is a low number) The other 5% will have very specific soft and hardware. Imagine you have build your own hardware with your own OS Bios, you made a Hurd kernel and build a browser based on Mosaic. The website does not work. Should I now start to look at the Apache logfiles to see what is happening? This wile all the other people have no issue?

That would be an unreasonable request The issue is where to draw the line. Only (recent) Windows with IE. Firefox? Chrome? Mac? Iphone? Android?

Unfortunately, as a business you can not satisfy each and every customer. There will be some that you can not serve if you want to make a profit.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[Rinikusu]

That has more to do with the fact that the "media industry" owns hulu more than it has to do with netflix. Disclaimer: I work in the "media industry". This kind of shit goes on all the damned time.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[phorm]

Uh, it runs on Windows and Android. They can be locked down but frankly there's still a lot of hackery one can do on those platforms.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[zippthorne]

You are assuming that it dumps the video part right out to the graphics chip and says, "here's an mpeg stream, do what you can" rather than taking a stream of bits and trying to both decrypt and decode it entirely in software, essentially treating the graphics chip as a frame buffer.

Re:Netflix runs on linux.

[hawk]

Vile hereteic!

For thy sin of requesting ye olde blob, thou art excommunicated from the High Church of Emacs.

There is NEVER an excuse for not handing over all your work, err, releasing the source.

(2 minutes now is too fast? Where's the "it's *ME*, damnit key? [hawk, who has a 4 digit uid as it took him a while to get over the cookies thing)

And now 4 minutes is too soon???

People watch netflix on a computer?

[alen]

Why?
There is this thing called a tv with 40" inch screens

Re:People watch netflix on a computer?

[ruf10]

TV? I'm 30, I'm to young to own a TV

Re:People watch netflix on a computer?

[norite]

Yes, and there's also this thing called a media server computer which plugs into that 40" tv. Broadcast is dead.

Re:People watch netflix on a computer?

[VortexCortex]

There is this thing called a tv with 40" inch screens

From where I'm sitting, my 23" computer monitor consumes about three times the visual range of my 50" TV, and it's higher resolution too. I can even watch it while it's twin brings up this web page.

Ah, well, not everyone's computer chair is as comfy as mine, but if you think about how much more time you spend at the terminal, that doesn't make any damn sense now does it? Perhaps you need to learn how to browse from a reclining captain's chair?

Engage.

Re:People watch netflix on a computer?

[PixetaledPikachu]

B-b-but fweeeeedum!

Don't worry, your tv will most likely run some sort of linux distro

Re:People watch netflix on a computer?

[epyT-R]

because netflix looks like shit on a huge screen? hell it looks like shit fullscreen on a 23" monitor.

Re:People watch netflix on a computer?

[MightyYar]

I have to assume you are trolling. Otherwise you seem to have had your imagination amputated.

The most common uses are a kick-ass multi-tuner DVR and a media library player. The little Roku boxes are cool, but you really have to jump through hoops to play local content, and they don't do YouTube at all - nor do they have DVR capability. Similar tradeoffs exist for Apple and Android boxes.

Re:People watch netflix on a computer?

[jedidiah]

> B-b-but fweeeeedum!

Media played on real Linux doesn't have any of the unskippable ad nonsense you see on a conventional BD player. Any of my desktop or HTPC players also have better navigation controls. I can much more reliably control those interfaces across multiple devices and not need to buy a single brand or model of console.

ALL PC based streaming video implementations kind of suck. So it's hard to argue against a $60 streamer appliance.

Re:People watch netflix on a computer?

[jedidiah]

>> People watch netflix on a computer? Why?
>
> It saves space when your computer can act as the TV too.

Hardly.

Even next to a even a low profile computer, a streamer appliance looks like the tranceiver for an after market IR remote.

Re:People watch netflix on a computer?

[oodaloop]

People still have TVs? Why not just watch it on your computer?

What a contradictory, fallacious statement!!

[bogaboga]

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?

Re:What a contradictory, fallacious statement!!

[phantomfive]

Supported, in that kind of context, typically means 'supported by the vendor.' In this case, Netflix doesn't support their software on Linux. If it works, that's an accident as far as Netflix is concerned.

Re:What a contradictory, fallacious statement!!

[squiggleslash]

Hmm, so any story of the form "X is a problem, but some people find a solution" is "contradictory, fallacious"?

This would make, BTW, virtually every story about a new invention designed to solve some pre-existing problem (which is 99% of inventions) "contradictory, fallacious".

No Wine for Me

[eric31415927]

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).

Re:No Wine for Me

[Bengie]

Yay, HTML5, with a DRM plugin so you can use a DRM blob that can make system calls. At least Netflix will work. chroot that browser though. That's assuming someone makes a Netflix blob to use with HTML5. Many content providers won't allow their content to be used on any platform that doesn't support a "secure" path for the DRM. This may require a custom kernel blob module.

Re:No Wine for Me

[DarwinSurvivor]

I'll wait until Netflix supports HTML 5, which should be fairly soon!

They already do, but it requires a DRM module that doesn't work in Linux. Ironically, Linux users are pretty much the only ones still using the Silverlight plugin, all of the other platforms have switched to the HTML5 interface already.

Re: No Wine for Me

[macromorgan]

If I recall, they are using the WebCrypto HTML5 standards in their HTML5 implementations today. They use a plugin on Chrome OS, but only because those extensions aren't yet implemented in (non dev versions of) the browser. On that note, anyone successfully get it working in Chromium, preferably by enabling those extensions in the dev version?

Re:No Wine for Me

[phoenix_rizzen]

DRM module is available in Google Chrome on ChromeOS ... aka Linux. Running on x86 and ARM.

DRM module is available in the Netflix app on Android ... aka Linux. Running on x86 and ARM.

DRM module is not available in Google Chrome on any other Linux distro, though. Completely arbitrary limitation. Google Chrome is Google Chrome is Google Chrome, but Google limits the availability of the DRM module.

Re:No Wine for Me

[DarwinSurvivor]

None of which helps anyone running mainstream desktop/laptop Linux distributions.

Re:WOW even the summary is wrong

[Desler]

It's just some guy spamming his website here for page hits. Pipelight was already posted about here back in August.

Silverlight = security hole

[Ice Station Zebra]

Crap software from M$.

Business tip for Netflix

[jones_supa]

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!

Re:Business tip for Netflix

[Anonymous Coward]

1) Become a sponsor of the Moonlight project
2) Become despised by both open and closed source communities alike.
3) ???
4) Go out of business.

Re:WOW even the summary is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Netflix Android native app works fine in linux

[Cito]

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

Re:Netflix Android native app works fine in linux

[ilikenwf]

Got a tutorial link?

Re:Netflix Android native app works fine in linux

[BrookHarty]

I thought netflix was for arm only. Will it even work in an emulator?

Re:Netflix Android native app works fine in linux

[Cito]

There is Android X86 you can run in a virtual box on pc

http://www.android-x86.org/download

Re:Netflix Android native app works fine in linux

[phoenix_rizzen]

Link to a how-to or it never happened. :)

Re:Right...

[SIR_Taco]

Editors!?! We don't need no stinkin' editors!

Android?

[Tekoneiric]

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?

Re:Right...

[worf_mo]

there are editors, right?

Editors on this site have been :qa! some time ago.

Stupid

[ilikenwf]

This is an ad for OpenSuse, Pipelight has been around for 2-3 months now.

oh...

[SuperDre]

And playstation 3 also supports silverlight? Not a chance....

Re:Android is linux

[Tekoneiric]

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.

Re:Android is linux

[hufter]

Saying that Android is Linux is like saying that Ubuntu is Linux. Linux is actually just the kernel, which they both use.

Re:WOW even the summary is wrong

[Chrisq]

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

Re:WOW even the summary is wrong

[TheRaven64]

It is indeed. For example, it starts with:

Ironically while Netflix's infrastructure runs on Linux

And even Phoronix managed to get that one right...

Silverlight doesn't work on MacOS either...

[tekrat]

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...

Re:WOW even the summary is wrong

[jellomizer]

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.

Re:WOW even the summary is wrong

[jedidiah]

...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".

Re:WOW even the summary is wrong

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

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.

Re:WOW even the summary is wrong

[Bill, Shooter of Bul]

In his defense, he means well.

I know this is off-topic.

[gumpish]

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?

Re:I know this is off-topic.

[CrankyFool]

FWIW, that's specific to the particular client you're using. It doesn't happen for me on AppleTV, for example.

Re:WOW even the summary is wrong

[zaphod777]

The FOSS version of silverlight doesn't include the DRM partitions needed to run Netflix.