[SGVLUG] netflix on native linux - hope it is not a vaporware announcement

[Michael Proctor-Smith]

On Wed, Aug 3, 2011 at 8:53 PM, John E. Kreznar <jek at ininx.com> wrote:
> In a posting purportedly from "Robert Leyva" <mrflash818 at geophile.net>
> but lacking a digital signature, it is written
>
>> netflix on native linux - hope it is not a vaporware announcement:
>
>> http://liliputing.com/2011/08/netflix-video-streaming-for-linux-on-the-way.html
>
> There we read
>
>   Right now Netflix relies on Microsoft Silverlight technology to
>   stream video to computers -- but Linux machines don't support
>   Silverlight.  That shouldn't be a huge problem though, because
>   neither do Android or iOS devices, and Netflix has already developed
>   apps to stream video to both of those platforms.
>
>   It's likely that the Chrome OS plugin and Linux client are related
>   projects, since Chrome OS is based on Linux.
>
> But Android is also based on Linux [1,2].  So why doesn't the Android
> Netflix app already work on Linux?  What could the author have had in
> mind here?

What they mean is available for general Linux desktop but netflix app
for android is only available for less then 20 phone models that run
android.

> Another question, unrelated:
>
>   ... there are a few catches: If you're using a computer ... you need
>   to be in the US.
>
> How do they determine whether you're "in the US"?

Most likely by ipaddress, yes there are ways around it. Most likely
known tor and proxy ips are blocked.

>
> [1] http://per.bothner.com/blog/2008/AndroidHelloScheme/ : "Google's
> phone operating system "Android" is based on a custom Java virtual
> machine on top of GNU/Linux."
>
> [2] http://news.google.com.0/news?q=motorola+droid+linux : "10 Reasons
> Why Google Android Is Secure ...  Linux is an extremely secure operating
> system.  And it just so happens that Google's Android platform is based
> on Linux."
>
> --
>  John E. Kreznar jek at ininx.com 9F1148454619A5F08550 705961A47CC541AFEF13
>
>