Netflix Instant is coming to the entire Linux Community | Hacker News Reader

Netflix Instant is coming to the entire Linux Community

benjaminkerensa.com

97 pointstaylorbuley40 comments

I will believe it when I see it downloadable, I have downloaded it, and used it to watch something, and no sooner. You can't put effectively DRM on Linux; you can binary blob whatever you like, but I own the kernel, graphics drivers, audio drivers, X Server, and everything else on the system except your lil' binary blob, and it doesn't stand a chance.

It makes it easier when you own everything around it, yes. But being on Windows/OSX doesn't make the DRM unbeatable, just more difficult to break. DRM period doesn't work, but that's not going to stop them from wrapping everything they own in it.

Ah, the old enterprise mindset strikes again. If somebody cracks the DRM on Windows, the movie producers have someone to yell at: Microsoft. Then they can make Microsoft fix it, and everyone rolls out new player software that requires the update to work. We've already been through some iterations of this on consoles, too. If somebody takes five minutes to crack the DRM on Linux... now what do the movie studios do? Go yell at Linus? The net effect of that will "an entertained Linus Torvalds" and not much more.

Of course we all "know" that DRM is fundamentally impossible, but there is a qualitative difference between trying to do DRM on a proprietary platform and on an open platform.

I believe I speak for all Linux users who need to keep Windows around just for Netflix when I say "shhhhh....."

Or you could buy a Roku for $50 and be done with windows.

Edit: $60, my bad.

There's also tons of Blu-Ray players with built in streaming capabilities as well that would help justify the cost of investing in a new device.

I don't know about other posters, but the reason I want everything to run through my Linux HTPC is because of the level of integration I can achieve with my custom UI, or with something like XBMC. I don't want to have a semi-reliable system with multiple boxes, IR blasters, etc. when I should be able to integrate everything I want into a single box, with the features, speed, low latency, and UI that I prefer.

Interesting -- I didn't know they were that cheap. (BTW the cheapest one is $60 + shipping).

Yeah, this is basically true on any other platform as well. While it may be more difficult if everything else is a blob, too, I think the reluctance is more about the audience that uses Linux than the capabilities of Linux itself. People can break the DRM on Windows too.

The reason Moonlight cannot play with Netflix's standard player, by the way, is that Microsoft refuses to license its DRM component for desktop Linux use. Moonlight runs the player on embedded Linux devices just fine, but since Linux is still small enough that MS can get away with slighting it, and since it benefits Windows to keep Linux as incapable as possible, they refuse to allow non-embedded Linux systems to run the module.

Frankly I'm surprised that people haven't cracked the MS DRM just out of spite for this move.

Frankly I'm surprised that people haven't cracked the MS DRM just out of spite for this move.

Because it's not worth it. People that want to pirate simply leech the movie off some torrent, instead of cracking a DRM then still paying for it.

er, I don't think they're worried about you. They might offer you a job.

You only really need one guy to hack the DRM and it's game over, since (a) he can share how he did it, and (b) he can freely share the decrypted files. Not that it really matters on Netflix since just about everything is already on DVD (and thus on torrents since CSS is cracked) anyhow.

Exactly. I'm certain the adults in charge know that some level of hacking is inherent to the game at this point. My guess is they're treating the set of all consumers as another corporation: an entity to do battle with in the ongoing pursuit of the best possible ROI.

And since Netflix's a web-based service, even if it were cracked, it could be patched very quickly.

But the content producers are worried, and they are the ones setting the bar for DRM. So if they nix the DRM on Linux, that's it.

Another thing about Linux: eventually someone will make an easy to use programme that captures the stream and saves it to a file, this open source programme will be useful to people and will be included in the main software repositories. It will then be easy to save the files, and open source developers will proudly promote this software and will not take kindly to netflix telling them to pull it.

Not that I'm complaining about how there would be an offical 'break netflix' programme (I think it would be cool and am an unabashed opponenet to DRM), but I think it would annoy Netflix.

I'm pretty sure it won't be the entire community. There are Linux users outside the US, you know.

Netflix is expanding globally. They've already announced the expansion into Latin America.

But not to that insignificant blot, Europe. No consumers over there, from what I hear, just a gang of pirates.

still it'd be nice to see more companies support linux -- there are quite a few pieces of software out there that flat out don't work well under linux, even if they have ports, (especially 64bit)

There are also Linux users who don't use x86 CPUs.

Outside... the US? What do you mean?

From an engineering point of view, Netflix Instant already works on Linux as it is available on Android. So, the issue is not a technical one.

Moonlight (Mono Silverlight) has all the technical chops as well. The lack of DRM is what prevents that from being a solution. Also, I will note that Moonlight lacks a fair bit of polish.

So, the issue here is clearly the business strategy and not the technical know-how. The 12 month estimate is meaningless. If the Netflix CEO wanted a Linux client it would be available very quickly.

I have no doubt they are playing around with the DRM, or creating proof-of-concept builds using the various options, but it is not like we are waiting around for some small technology team to deliver it as a product.

oh yeah... I reported on this a while ago. I guess I didn't discuss the implications:

http://tnkr.net/linchrome.png

...the implications of it being ppapi: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2760660

What a helpful screen grab. Will try. Thank you!

I should note... currently Netflix is rerouting to a landing page if you try to stream via Chrome OS, even with this plugin enabled. I imagine that will change very soon, and when it does, you should be able to use almost this same exact method to enable it.

Files from Chrome OS were: netflix.info netflixplugin.so libnetflixidd.so

All of them were put in /opt/google/chrome

Nice! This is perhaps the one single "essential" thing I miss on Linux.

I wonder if their work overlaps with the android client at all?

The only way I have been able to watch Netflix in Linux was with a VM running Windows XP (max RAM and Graphic card power). In my first trial I tried it with 1GB of RAM and the sound was not working fine.

Of course, this is not a real Linux experience but... at least it worked.

This is about as reliable as Phoronix's annual "Steam is coming to Linux and we can prove it this time!" story. Inside it reads: "We talked to someone at Valve and they said Steam is coming to Linux!!1"

I have heard such rumors specific to Netflix in the past, but really, "I talked to some guys from Netflix and they said so" does not meet the standard of proof expected to publish such findings in a public pronouncement not clearly marked as rumor.

Also, how many Netflix employees that would know about this project were at OSCON? You may be exposing them even if you don't post their names.

>This is about as reliable as Phoronix's annual "Steam is coming to Linux and we can prove it this time!" story. Inside it reads: "We talked to someone at Valve and they said Steam is coming to Linux!!1"

There was actually a Linux binary that you could download from their servers and it would actually connect and download an update. Not that it would even launch a window, of course.

This is not going to be a chrome plugin.... Instead it will be a proprietary client.

If this does happen, I see it mostly as important for XBMC-type setups on Linux.

Even if this is true: big fans of FOSS and hoping to release a proprietary client? If you're going to claim whatever social cachet is going for FOSS users, then you really ought to be avoiding those binary blobs.

The entire Linux community or the US Linux community?

Its pretty amazing that these netflix engineers had NDAs just in case they talked to some guy with a blog:)

Not 'entire', people outside the US can't watch it.

Someone still thinks artificial scarcity is a viable business model?

Soooo... a proprietary client that nobody but a few hackers at Netflix care about. Sounds like something to get the FSF all stirred up.

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