Can I Watch Netflix on Linux?

Yes! Yes you can! Here’s How:

For the longest time you were not able to watch Netflix on Linux computers and laptops because of a proprietary technology that Netflix uses called Silverlight.
linux netflix
What is Silverlight? In a nutshell, Silverlight is a plug-in owned by Microsoft that is able to improve the quality of streaming video.

In 2014, Netflix started switching over from Silverlight to a version of HTML5 that they use. This
But thanks to engineers at both Netflix and Ubuntu, you are now able to watch Netflix via the Chrome Browser.

This isn’t limited to the Ubuntu version of Linux either. You can watch it on any Linux distro! Chrome is the one that updated their browser so that it could stream Netflix on Linux operating systems.

The Previous Workaround:

The previous method of watching Netflix was to install Wine, which is virtualization software that enables people to run Windows programs in the Linux environment. The new update from Chrome, which enables you to watch Netflix, also mentions that they blocked this method from being effective anyway.

Anyone that’s spent hours creating workarounds on a Linux distro understands how frustrating it can be when a company blocks your method.

Resources Mentioned in this Article:

Ubuntu.com – watch Netflix in Chrome

Microsoft.com – About Silverlight.