How to watch Netflix in Ubuntu 14.04

It is easy to watch Netflix in Windows. You can use a web browser or desktop program, but this is different in linux. This is not feasible by default in linux, because Netflix needs Microsoft Silverlight, and because it is "Microsoft", it is obvious that it cannot be used in Linux. So Netflix cannot be used in Linux? Of course there is a way. In this article, we will see how to watch Netflix on Ubuntu 14.04 (maybe in earlier versions such as 13.10 and 13.04 ).

Netflix does not officially support Ubuntu

Amazon apologized to Netflix: downtime was so unfortunate

Netflix will use HTML5 to replace Silverlight

Download, install, and configure Ubuntu 14.04

Ubuntu 14.04 system:

Ubuntu 14.04 text tutorial on hard drive installation in Windows 7

How to watch Netflix in Ubuntu 14.04:

We need Pipelight, a project that supports Silverlight on Linux Through Wine. This project is still in beta state, but it is working very well. Let's see how to install Pipelight on Ubuntu 14.04.

Install Pipelight on Ubuntu 14.04

Thanks to the Pipelight team's PPA, It is very convenient to install Pipelight on Ubuntu14.04. Open a terminal and run the following commands in sequence:

1. Sudo apt-add-repository ppa: pipelight/stable
2. Sudo apt-get update
3. Sudo apt-get install pipelight-multi

The installation package is about MB, so it may take some time if your network connection is slow. Similarly, Pipelight is in beta state, so check the installation instructions here (to prevent future changes ).

Enable Sliverlight to play Netflix

Generally, Pipelight has enabled the silverlight plug-in by default, but to be foolproof, use the following command to enable Silverlight:

1. Sudo pipelight-plugin -- enable silverlight

Here two conditions are accepted. Once you have done this, it will take some time to install Silverlight.

Install Netflix desktop applications in Ubuntu 14.04

Now you can use Netflix in a web browser. However, the Pipelight project provides more. The PPA we just used also has Netflix desktop applications for Ubuntu. Use the following command:

1. Sudo apt-get install netflix-desktop

After the installation is complete, you can find Netflix in Unity Dash.

At first run, it will install some Wine related stuff. Let it do that. Afterwards, it shoshould run fine: At the first startup, it will install Wine-related things. Let it do it. After that, it will run normally:

Use Netflix on Ubuntu outside USA:

Have you noticed the Netflix desktop application above? It says Netflix does not support my country (that is, France ). I am not a fan of Netflix, but I wrote an article on how to easily watch Netflix outside the United States. If you want to watch Netflix outside the US, you need to change the DNS settings.

The Tunlr mentioned in this article is a free service that has been disabled. As an alternative, I also use Unlocator, which is free of charge in beta. It is easy to use and has a good experience. Unlocator is no longer free now, but if you want to spend $5 a month, Unlocator is a great DNS unlocking server.