Netflix Is Finally Coming To Linux Without The Need For Hacky Tricks

While Google Analytics might suggest our Linux-lovin’ audience isn’t all that huge, I know you’re out there.

If you’re sitting in the itty-bitty overlapping sliver on the Venn diagram of “People who use Ubuntu” and “People who can’t figure out how to use user agent spoofing and other trickery to make Netflix work on Ubuntu” — good news! Netflix is likely (finally) coming to Ubuntu soon.

Word of the change comes from Paul Adolph, a senior engineer at Netflix. Posting on the Ubuntu development group, Paul says:

Netflix will play with Chrome stable in 14.02 if NSS version 3.16.2 or greater is installed. If this version is generally installed across 14.02, Netflix would be able to make a change so users would no longer have to hack their User-Agent to play.

So what’s all this talk of “NSS”? NSS, or Network Security Services, is an open-source library maintained by Oracle, Google, Mozilla, AOL and a bunch of other companies as a way to implement security protocols like SSL. It’s a part of everything from Mozilla’s Thunderbird to AIM to Chrome. In Netflix’s case, it needs it for making the video DRM work to appease the Hollywood overlords.

Once Ubuntu’s version of NSS gets updated to the latest build — which the guys at fansite OMGUbuntu say should happen within the next few weeks — Ubuntu users should be good to go, no hacks required.

[Via slashdot]