The Ubuntu users do not have to make do with arcane workarounds like WINE just for them to watch Netflix on their devices. Thanks to Google Chrome‘s offering! Users can now just directly head to the website via Chrome and start streaming their favorite TV show, movie or music.
The users previously had to make changes to the user agent string of the web browser Google Chrome in order to fool the system of the music streaming platform. It gives the website an idea that its visitor is currently using Internet Explorer. Of course, before this, the users had to run an application through WINE which is a famous emulator of Windows software. While lots of users of Linux may already be used to jumping through hoops to stream media file, it’s nice to know that they no longer have to go through such things.
What pushed Netflix to work across Linux browsers and distributors is digital rights management. It was explained that the company streams its videos via HTML5 but prevents piracy by using a technology that is referred to as Encrypted Media Extensions (EME). What the extensions do in turn is require for Network Security Services which is a set of libraries that the web browser will get an access to.
Thanks to the joined efforts of Canonical which maintains Ubuntu and Netflix because right now, Ubuntu users can already say goodbye to inconvenient workarounds like the ones mentioned above just to be able to stream their favorite videos. Ubuntu hadn’t offered NSS in its usual updates until recently and the change with Ubuntu 12.04 and 14.04 made the video streaming platform promise to allow streaming without asking for user agent string changes. What the users will need to do is download Google Chrome 37 and they’ll be able to stream without jumping through hoops anymore.
Out of the most commonly used browsers of today like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and a few others, it’s only Google Chrome that is able to fulfill the requirements needed for it to operate Netflix. There’s just one alternative for Chrome and it is Mozilla Firefox but it doesn’t have support for EMEs as of now which is by the way one of those needed to fulfil the requirements of the process. After some resistance though, it’s reported that Mozilla is currently working to add EME support in the browser’s future version.