Re:Netflix touts open source, ignores Linux
by cookiecaper on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @07:41PM
(#2010596)
Netflix is already streamed to several Linux devices, so the technical issues of a Linux implementation have been figured out. TiVO runs Linux, so does Boxee, and they support Netflix streaming. I expect there are several other embedded devices in the same boat.
The real reason that Netflix doesn't offer desktop Linux support is, as far as I've heard from articles I'm too lazy to look back up to cite, Microsoft refuses to grant Netflix a license to the DRM for a Linux desktop client because Microsoft is concerned that a Linux desktop client would make it too easy to reverse-engineer the DRM scheme that Netflix is using (Microsoft PlayReady).
The most important thing to remember is: Offering a desktop linux client will gain them a miniscule number of customers.
Now remembering the overriding point above, consider the following and decide if it's worth it.
* They can't just offer a linux client. They can offer an ubuntu client, or a fedora client, etc.
* Linux video is a mess. I still don't have an adequate vsync aware solution for playing videos on all my graphics cards. Fortunately they would probably bundle their own decoder, so they wouldn't have to pick the poison of xine or gstreamer (which are both much improved in the past couple years, but still have their problems)
* A subpar linux offering would be harmful to their brand image (far more than a nonexistent one) and expensive in terms of customer support. Remember, a large fraction of Netflix's customers are early adopters, so are likely to have a linux box. (They have a ps3 or a wii or a mac or a windows box, which is how they stream right now)
* A proposed benefit of supporting linux would be that OSS proponents wouldn't bitch and moan. Adding a DRMed video streaming program to linux isn't likely to change that.