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Priamo Gregory
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.
I recently installed Fedora 14 on my home PC so I have a dual boot system running windows and linux. I probably would primarily use Linux on that machine as its older and Linux manages its resources MUCH better than Windows does, BUT I'm a bit of a Netflix junky and from what I've read there isn't currently a solution that allows for Netflix to work on Linux. Evidently Moonlight (which as I understand is supposed to be like silverlight) is missing a key piece of functionality. So is there really no solution?
With Microsoft abandoning Silverlight, Netflix has made strong efforts to switch their video delivery software to HTML5. An HTML5 video player does not need a browser plugin like Adobe Flash or Microsoft Silverlight to work. However, in order to stream videos, Netflix requires their delivered content to remain secure. This is achieved in HTML5 via a browser plugin known as Network Security Service. Finally both of these components are mature enough.
The answers to your questions are here: -on-ubuntu-is-here.htmlBy adding a ppa you can get a special blend of wine and firefox that will run the netflix videoplayer (silverlight). It's 3 commands and although I personally have had some trouble on the 64-bit kernel it works well on a 32-kernel. If you have further questions or you get it running on a 64-bit kernel let me know.
You can watch netflix inside of a webbrowser simply by changing your user agent. Normally your browser sends a user agent to the server when accessing a website containing your browser version and your operating system. It looks something like this:
You can fake your user agent using a browser extension. When your user agent says that you're on Windows, you can watch Netflix inside of your browser even though you are on a Linux system. I'm not sure why Netflix doesn't want Linux users to watch their content but it works!
This will install around 254MB of packages, mainly it will install wine-compholio (a custom version of wine that is able to run Silverlight) and dependencies. If wine is not installed already you may need to agree to use Microsoft fonts (in the text mode window use arrow keys or tab to reach the red "ok" button in text mode when it appears). The download/installation takes around 15 minutes.
If something went wrong in the installation (third party links are involved), don't panic: netflix-desktop will detect that something is missing and try to reinstall it, if that also fails, start over.
The window will open in fullscreen, which is very elegant, but if you want to have control over the window press F11 right away to exit fullscreen mode. (It may also ask to install a Firefox extension --specially designed-- that makes fullscreen mode more friendly.)
Credits and references: This information was originally taken from -to-use-netflix-in-ubuntu-through.html. Although this is a result of a campaign initiated by www.iheartubuntu.com in -on-linux-contest.html, resulting in this achievement -for-netflix-desktop-app.html (by Erich Hoover) which also contains a link for donations to support the development. There is also -desktop
Bonus: By running this you have a fully functional Firefox 17 (Windows version) with working Silverlight that can be used to navigate other sites, by pressing F10 -> View -> Toolbars -> Navigation menu on the main window you can access any site and be able to use Silverlight.
If you don't like the appearance of the scroll bars, you can enable Chrome's overlay scrollbars. Go to chrome://flags/#overlay-scrollbars and Enable them. Now you have scrollbars that complete the experience:
Old chrome versions will block netflix from working, so this is important. You may need to update the user-agent to the latest version (by checking a local install or trying something from -info.net/useragents)Also in the text box, replace the "all_urls" to netflix.com. This will apply the changed user-agent to netflix only
Enter netflix, trying to see a show/movie, firefox will warn that it needs to enable DRM support. Accept and it will download and install the widevine DRM plugin. Wait a minute and reload the page. Sometimes you need to go back and try again, but it will work
I read a while ago that it might be possible to run a Wii emulator instead of virtual box, but I don't think that would be an improvement for most people. I've been meaning to try Netflix in an android emulator since the app came out, however I still need to test if it will actually work. The problem is that the app is only "approved" for certain phones. There is a hack that is suppose to work for rooted phones, So I think there's a good chance this could be a better solution than virtual box, but it's hard to say for sure.
Moonlight, while it is an open-source alternative to Silverlight, does not work for Netflix. The reason that this does not work for Netflix is that Netflix also requires DRM support, which Moonlight does not give.
You will want to virtualize Windows XP/Vista/7 on Ubuntu. I would recommend Virtualbox, but you are free to use whatever you want. Under the virtual machine, you can use the real Silverlight and DRM-support and watch Netflix.
As it's installed, there is a read/write permission on disks that does not allow us to make changes and therefore does not allow us to install Widevine. We can change it from Ubuntu Software (the snap shop).
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