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Firefox Entertainment Linux

Firefox for Linux is Now Netflix Compatible (betanews.com) 71

Posted by msmash from the about-time dept.
Brian Fagioli, writing for BetaNews: For a while, Netflix was not available for traditional Linux-based operating systems, meaning users were unable to enjoy the popular streaming service without booting into Windows. This was due to the company's reliance on Microsoft Silverlight. Since then, Netflix adopted HTML5, and it made Google Chrome and Chromium for Linux capable of playing the videos. Unfortunately, Firefox -- the open source browser choice for many Linux users -- was not compatible. Today this changes, however, as Mozilla's offering is now compatible with Netflix!
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Firefox for Linux is Now Netflix Compatible More

Firefox for Linux is Now Netflix Compatible

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  • Boot Windows? What? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by subk ( 551165 )
    That's utter bullshit. I am no longer a Netflix customer, but for several recent years I was able to view it just fine using Chromium + Widevine. A quick search on the subject will reveal that Windows is not needed. Who writes this shit?

    • Here's a quick rewrite:

      Until now, Netflix video could not be watched using Firefox on Linux without some monkeying around. Now it can. Enjoy!

    • I'm an admin and I don't have a problem tinkering around with Linux. But when I run into this kind of crap that has to be done because company X refuses to do things in a standard way, I tend to just go back to Windows 7 for awhile and wait until the issue is taken care of in a better way by someone.
  • Anybody have any technical details on why it was not previously possible? My understanding is that it has been possible (at least for a while, possibly since FF49) with the Widevine plugin + spoofing a Chrome user agent.

  • This is why (Score:2, Informative)

    by jwymanm ( 627857 )
    The new installer script for latest Firefox fixed this issue and that pesky having plugins problem:
    #!/bin/sh
    ln -s /usr/bin/google-chrome /usr/bin/mozilla-firefox
    • In other words, it wasn't a priority for Firefox to address. Wonder if the priorities shifted, or whether it was something to do now that they have time..

      • Re:This is why (Score:5, Informative)

        by roca ( 43122 ) on Wednesday March 22, 2017 @02:29PM (#54090523) Homepage

        Firefox has been ready for a while. The problem was Netflix sniffing the Linux user-agent and going down the Silverlight path. Now Netflix has fixed that.

        One of the many things that's hard about building a browser is taking the blame for stuff like this.

  • Would this work for an ARM version of Firefox (e.g. so it could be run on a Raspberry Pi) ?

    • No. This is 100% reliant upon DRM plugins called CDMs (Content Decryption Modules) that are OS, browser and architecture dependent. You will never be able to use this on any architecture they don't explicitly allow.

  • No longer must i use google chrome on my linux laptop to watch netflix!!! Now using a linux OS for my home media server makes sense, now that it can download movies/tv shows and play them using the builtin free software bittorent client, and VLC, it can also play netflix and youtube on a television as well. Now the only thing i need windows for is my gaming machine.

    until SteamOS finally catches on
  • I recall using Ubuntu 12.04 and had to do agent switchers, install a bunch of stuff just to watch Netflix videos.
  • If netflix has been using html5 video rather than silverlight, why didn't this work on firefox earlier? Can you imagine I even read TFA to find out, to no avail.

    • HTML 5 video has many mechanisms to restrict media access based on client properties. For example, there is a robustness parameter [github.io] which implementations are expected to evaluate according to their perceived ability to prevent user-controlled access to content.

      I suspect that Widevine (the DRM plugin used by Firefox) did not provide a robustness level on Linux which Netflix was comfortable with. To a degree, this is still ongoing. I think the maximum resolution you can get on Linux still is 720p, while Wind

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by roca ( 43122 )

      Because of user-agent sniffing by Netflix.

  • I just tried Netflix in Chrome and Firefox on Ubuntu. It works but only in standard def for me. Amazon prime video was similar, it worked but only SD. I've cancelled both subscriptions. I dont get why they place these restrictions; theyre inconveniencing paying customers whilst not preventing the ripping of the content. Loose loose situation?!
    • because it is the distributers not Netflix that set the requirements for what security/DRM mechanisms you need to support for HD. If google or Mozilla implement something acceptable to the content providers then Netflix can provide it. Netflix is the only the middle man in this situation.

  • They call it "plugin free" but then what the fuck are Content Decryption Modules? I'll tell you what they are, they are the OS, platform and architecture dependent DRM plugins that Firefox uses. Try putting Firefox on your Raspberry Pi and you'll see it will not work.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by phorm ( 591458 )

      This is exactly what I was wondering about. I would absolutely love if this allowed it to work on a PI, but if there's still some dependency on a module that isn't available on ARM, it's probably a no-go.

      Then again, I've heard of people getting it to work on Chromium by grabbing bits and pieces from a Chromebook (which can play Netflix), so it's still possible AFAIK.

      I'm actually OK with DRM modules so long as they follow a known, open standard (and yes, this can be done, much like encryption). Anything else

  • HBO's GO service in Central Europe was similar: worked only in Chrome on Linux, but since about a month it's working with Firefox on Linux too (HTML5-based).

  • This is good news, no doubt, and long overdue.. I mean, cumon, really? Microsoft Silverlight required? What was up with that anyway? We still won't resubscribe after the "Dear White People" debacle though. We're getting our streaming stuff elsewhere.

  • 99% still inhibited by ridiculous artificial restrictions

  • If I understand correctly, it uses a binary-blob provided, architecture-dependant DRM called CDM

    Would EME be an implemented standard, that restriction would be lifted. DRM in a W3C standard may have some good points, after all.

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