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Latarsha Dorrance

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Aug 2, 2024, 8:22:18 AM8/2/24

to neelomischpo

The instructions below are legacy instructions for running Silverlight on Linux via Wine.However, running Netflix is entirely possible in Ubuntu Linux 12.04 and later releases (and most likely any other modern distribution). See the section below "Running with Wine".

This is because they use Microsoft Silverlight plugin with DRM. Although there is a Linux alternative to Silverlight called Moonlight, it does not have any DRM built in and it is unlikely Moonlight will implement a DRM option. Netflix has stated they will not use anything without DRM. So if Netflix continues to use Silverlight, then there will be no official Linux support.

If you don't like it, complain to Netflix, not us. Their phone number is 1-866-716-0414 or you could sign the petition to add Linux support to Netflix. Petition to add Netflix "Watch Now" feature for Linux. Calling Netflix and signing the petition both is the best plan as the numerous times I've called has resulted in the call center person telling me that "...the more people who call and request linux as an option is noted by Netflix".

Depending on each individual system's configuration and hardware, video quality may vary. The steps for installing or running Netflix with Wine listed below this line may be old or out-dated. (11/25/2012) -for-netflix-desktop-app.html

It is also possible to run Netflix under Wine with a couple of extra patches to the latest source code tree. Hopefully these patches will be included into Wine in the near future so that custom-compiling Wine is no longer necessary.

Using a virtual machine is a non-ideal solution, but it works. But if you have a Win-XP CD lying around its not so bad. Just think of it as running a really inefficient video player program, instead of a really backwards workaround.

Install Chrome version 37 or higher (currently the stable version). Launch Chrome, sign in to your Google account (if you have one), log in to Netflix, and streaming should be working. If not, make sure your system is fully up to date. In particular, you need a recent version of libnss3.

Previously the only way to run Netflix on Linux was to install a Windows VM on VirtualBox. Now it is running seamlessly (although not natively) on Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 using Firefox and Microsoft Silverlight under WINE. A special ppa has been setup to make the entire process easy.

After the PPA and netflix-desktop is installed simply run it like any other app. It is running beautifully on my Ubuntu 12.10 laptop with Gnome 3. By default it runs full screen but you can press f11 to run in windowed mode.