I’m a bit reluctant to call this a sure thing, that Netflix is absolutely coming to Linux, but it is a positive sign. It is one person who worked OSCON 2011 and chatted with two Linux using Netflix engineers who reported that Netflix has some developers working on a Linux Netflix client which should be available in the next 12 months. But it isn’t a priority project, which is why it may take so long. So, yeah, not exactly an official statement of intent by Netflix. And if this is a low-key project by a small number of developers it is the kind of thing that could be canned at any time.
Netflix relies on Microsoft Silverlight for the Windows and MacOS clients. While there are Netflix clients for a number of Linux-based devices, such as TiVo, Android, and ChromeOS, as well as other platforms, like iOS, the PS3, and Blu-ray players, that isn’t the same as running on a Linux PC. Netflix relies on DRM to secure the streams, which they must do to satisfy the content owners who grant them the licenses to stream. Silverlight provides the DRM on Windows and MacOS, but on other platforms the DRM is generally provided by the hardware itself. That’s not an option on a generic PC, so the client would have to provide it.
Via Liliputing.
