Developer Details How to Get Netflix Running on Linux
For as popular as Netflix has become, it's a little surprising that it isn't available on Linux. Not natively, anyway. Don't worry though, if you really want to run Netflix on Linux, a determined developer has figured out a workaround that actually, well, works.
The developer, Erich Hoover, says the solution is to get Firefox and Microsoft Silverlight working in WINE, which is "not as as it sounds." To get all the pieces to play nice together, you need to run a custom built version of WINE that's been patched in several places. It's a wee bit complicated and involves several steps, but according to Hoover, the end result works like a charm on 32-bit versions of Ubuntu. You can get it to work on a 64-bit build too, but that's even more tricky, he says.
Hoover is said to be working a PPA (Personal Package Archive) that will make installing Netflix on Ubuntu 32-bit and 64-bit a simple and painless process. In the meantime, iHeartUbuntu outlines all the steps required to get Netflix working ahead of the PPA.
The developer, Erich Hoover, says the solution is to get Firefox and Microsoft Silverlight working in WINE, which is "not as as it sounds." To get all the pieces to play nice together, you need to run a custom built version of WINE that's been patched in several places. It's a wee bit complicated and involves several steps, but according to Hoover, the end result works like a charm on 32-bit versions of Ubuntu. You can get it to work on a 64-bit build too, but that's even more tricky, he says.
Hoover is said to be working a PPA (Personal Package Archive) that will make installing Netflix on Ubuntu 32-bit and 64-bit a simple and painless process. In the meantime, iHeartUbuntu outlines all the steps required to get Netflix working ahead of the PPA.
