Netflix for Ubuntu Is Now Available

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
Missing something on your Ubuntu box? Something like the Netflix Application? Your long wait is over if you are comfortable with compiling software yourself or if not, very soon for the casual Ubuntu user.

There is a PPA coming out soon to make installation much easier. If you are not comfortable with compiling software in linux, I recommend waiting for the PPA.
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So was this actually released by Netflix?
Either way, kudos for the Linux users :).

Maybe someday I might fully change over, lol.
 
Lazybones said:
It also makes linux based HTPC setups a lot better with choices like netflix.
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That's something I have been meaning to finish building but just have been lazy as of late. Might look more into it this weekend, thanks for reminding me :).
 
Awesome! This is the only reason I don't use Netflix, it does not work on my HTPC. Now it will be a reality! I'll wait for the prepackaged version though, I hate dealing with compiling software and dealing with all the dependencies.

With Steam and Netflix, things are moving along for Linux. Hopefully this movement continues. The only down side is if Linux does eventually get more popular, that means more viruses and malware and other crap like that, but I'm sure the open source community will come up with a decent AV solution that is free.
 
Is this going to not be resource hog like Silverlight? Could be appealing over Windows for a lower end HTPC for that.
 
Bad summary.
Netflix now works with some WINE patches, it's not related to Ubuntu.

Official support isn't likely to ever come because Linux would probably make it too easy to bypass the DRM.
 
Too late. I got rid of netflix as soon as Amazon went to $7.99 a month without having to pay for a year at once. More movies, and plays on linux just fine. Netflix should have done this months ago.

But still good news nontheless. Can't wait for lot of my games on Steam to get ported to Linux, I wouldn't even need to run Windows. Only reason I use Windows is because of games, everything else I can do on Linux, and better.
 
W00t, actually this will be really handy for those running Ubuntu HTPCs.
 
pankkake said:
Bad summary.
Netflix now works with some WINE patches, it's not related to Ubuntu.

Official support isn't likely to ever come because Linux would probably make it too easy to bypass the DRM.
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Such folly.

Bypassing the digital restrictions management is not a problem when there are other sources to get the content. One wonders if Microsoft Employee Reed Hastings has ever heard of "BitTorrent".
 
stop!theradio said:
I just use my web browser to access Netflix...
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That's the thing, you couldn't, until now, access Netflix through your browser on Linux or through any other app. You had to use windows or not watch netflix on your computer at all.
 
pewter77 said:
That's the thing, you couldn't, until now, access Netflix through your browser on Linux or through any other app. You had to use windows or not watch netflix on your computer at all.
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totally

silverlight

IE



this is awesome news
 
Wow! Nice!

Wonder how they did this without Silverlight?

Hopefully it won't be long before someone makes a XBMC plugin for it.
 
Zarathustra[H];1039337893 said:
Wow! Nice!

Wonder how they did this without Silverlight?

Hopefully it won't be long before someone makes a XBMC plugin for it.
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Actually it is using Silverlight, just version 4 instead of 5.
 
jpm100 said:
Is this going to not be resource hog like Silverlight? Could be appealing over Windows for a lower end HTPC for that.
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Silverlight a resource hog? Maybe on 5 year old computers. BSG: Caprica in HD using Chrome runs at 0.2% CPU usage and 81MB memory usage on my Sandy Bridge Core i5 laptop with 4GB RAM running Windows 8 Pro, with IE10, Outlook 2013 and Live Messenger running. Hardly a resource hog.
 
Here's what I don't understand: If Android is using a Linux-based kernel, what makes a Netflix Android app no different than having it run on Linux-based distro?

Would Android, in effect, be a Linux-based distro itself?

Maybe someone more versed in Linux and/or Android programming can enlighten me. It's interesting how that works because Silverlight runs only on Windows and it is the only plugin/extension Netflix uses because of the DRM support. Why not Flash like with Hulu? Why go with Silverlight that is only supported on one OS?

It really does not make too much sense.
 
Azhar said:
Silverlight a resource hog? Maybe on 5 year old computers. BSG: Caprica in HD using Chrome runs at 0.2% CPU usage and 81MB memory usage on my Sandy Bridge Core i5 laptop with 4GB RAM running Windows 8 Pro, with IE10, Outlook 2013 and Live Messenger running. Hardly a resource hog.
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Silverlight is okay and it recently (I believe 1.5 years ago?) received an update to allow for GPU acceleration. The Netflix apps have historically lagged behind because Netflix has been lazy in recompiling their software to take advantage of the GPU acceleration. It's the reason you heard people couldn't run Netflix fluidly with their Bobcat and Atom+Ion netbooks despite the fact that they had enough processing power to do so.

octoberasian said:
Here's what I don't understand: If Android is using a Linux-based kernel, what makes a Netflix Android app no different than having it run on Linux-based distro?

Would Android, in effect, be a Linux-based distro itself?

Maybe someone more versed in Linux and/or Android programming can enlighten me. It's interesting how that works because Silverlight runs only on Windows and it is the only plugin/extension Netflix uses because of the DRM support. Why not Flash like with Hulu? Why go with Silverlight that is only supported on one OS?

It really does not make too much sense.
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Sort of. It has the same kernel but it isn't as open source as the other distros.

In order to run Android's software you would need ARM + access to their market, but just because it's Linux doesn't necessarily mean it would allow that without jumping through hoops

Android consists of a kernel based on the Linux kernel 2.6 and Linux Kernel 3.x (Android 4.0 onwards), with middleware, libraries and APIs written in C and application software running on an application framework which includes Java-compatible libraries based on Apache Harmony. Android uses the Dalvik virtual machine with just-in-time compilation to run Dalvik dex-code (Dalvik Executable), which is usually translated from Java bytecode.[47] The main hardware platform for Android is the ARM architecture. There is support for x86 from the Android x86 project,[7] and Google TV uses a special x86 version of Android.
Android's linux kernel has further architecture changes by Google outside the typical Linux kernel development cycle.[48] Android does not have a native X Window System by default nor does it support the full set of standard GNU libraries, and this makes it difficult to port existing Linux applications or libraries to Android.[49]
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You would have more luck firing up a VM and using it that way (you'd still have the ARM issue, though, but ARM 64-bit support has been added to the recent kernel).
 
pankkake said:
Bad summary.
Netflix now works with some WINE patches, it's not related to Ubuntu.

Official support isn't likely to ever come because Linux would probably make it too easy to bypass the DRM.
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Yeah, this is a hack for a lack of better words.

The is still NO OFFICIAL support of Linux from NetFlix.
They are in bed with MS with their single support of SilverLight. This is a truckload of stupid on NetFlix part.
 
Dr. Righteous said:
Yeah, this is a hack for a lack of better words.

The is still NO OFFICIAL support of Linux from NetFlix.
They are in bed with MS with their single support of SilverLight. This is a truckload of stupid on NetFlix part.
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Yes it is, as is Adobe.
It's too bad HTML5 didn't take off as fast as it should have to replace both.
 
Red Falcon said:
Yes it is, as is Adobe.
It's too bad HTML5 didn't take off as fast as it should have to replace both.
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Exactly...........

But it is interesting to see how many people hate windows 8 and are now seriously considering linux. More people using Linux; it will force Netflix to look closely at what their customers are up to.
Still it amazes me how many still think that Linux is command line OS with a crappy shell program like in the DOS days.
Yeah; if that was the case switching from a modern iteration of Windows would be laughable. The last person that told me that I asked them "why do you think that?"
His response was typical. "That is what they told me; the guy at Best Buy". :rolleyes:
 
Since last update about 1 month ago, Netflix on Android had been practically unusable for a large portion of users (most?). Just look at the ratings.

There is clearly a ways to go before a Linux native application happens. Add the politics involved = doubtful.
 
pelo said:
He compiles his own Linux kernel and uses Arch Linux. Duhhhhh :p

ps - I love newbuntu.
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I use Ubuntu 12.04 but I have all the resource wasting effects (compiz) turned off and unloaded plus I ditched unity totally.
I like the broad support Ubuntu offers even though other distros tend to run faster. I have to admit; with all the sparkles turn on it ran like crap on my system. But the sparkles are USELESS anyway. The best reason to use Linux is stability. If you like useless shiny pretties stick with windows. ;)
 
pelo said:
He compiles his own Linux kernel and uses Arch Linux. Duhhhhh :p

ps - I love newbuntu.
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Gentoo > Arch linux. Doesn't Arch Linux have a 30cm beard (with 30% neck coverage) minimum requirement?

Gah at you! :D

Dr. Righteous said:
I use Ubuntu 12.04 but I have all the resource wasting effects (compiz) turned off and unloaded plus I ditched unity totally.
I like the broad support Ubuntu offers even though other distros tend to run faster. I have to admit; with all the sparkles turn on it ran like crap on my system. But the sparkles are USELESS anyway. The best reason to use Linux is stability. If you like useless shiny pretties stick with windows. ;)
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But this isn't 1998 anymore, which is probably why so few bother with Linux at all. Unless you load it with crapware a Windows system can be left on for months and months without any slowdown or stability problems ever. Also you can have the shiny stuff annnd stability annd software compatibility annd run stuff by double clicking instead of lots of Wine mixing and fustration.

Actually sparkles aren't useless. Humans react to asthetics rather well. If you stare at grey boxes endlessly it does have a psychological effect. To the software though it is useless. Just not to you. :D
 
Got this running here last night, not too bad

now for steam...and then watch window$ collect dust
 
DeathPrincess said:
But this isn't 1998 anymore, which is probably why so few bother with Linux at all. Unless you load it with crapware a Windows system can be left on for months and months without any slowdown or stability problems ever. Also you can have the shiny stuff annnd stability annd software compatibility annd run stuff by double clicking instead of lots of Wine mixing and fustration.

Actually sparkles aren't useless. Humans react to asthetics rather well. If you stare at grey boxes endlessly it does have a psychological effect. To the software though it is useless. Just not to you. :D
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Mainly preference on my part. I'm a minimalist and I like lean performance. I'm comfortable with Ubuntu enough now I don't want to change. I had the sparkles on at first but running multiple desktops full of open apps and open docs I started to notes it slowed it down. Once you have seen menus fade in and out; you have seen it.
A lot of the implementation of the effects are not that good in my opinion. Yeah, they can give you some nifty eye candy; but it gets old pretty quick.
 
Azhar said:
Silverlight a resource hog? Maybe on 5 year old computers. BSG: Caprica in HD using Chrome runs at 0.2% CPU usage and 81MB memory usage on my Sandy Bridge Core i5 laptop with 4GB RAM running Windows 8 Pro, with IE10, Outlook 2013 and Live Messenger running. Hardly a resource hog.
Click to expand...
A core i5 should be overkill for a HTPC and not a requirement.
 
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