Linux fans, the wait for Netflix is almost over

The long wait is coming to an end.

Netflix, the largest paid subscription streaming video service in the country with over 35 million members, will soon add broader support for Linux. Until now, those with a device running some Linux operating systems have been left out of the streaming revolution. But last night Netflix senior software engineer Paul Adolph let users on the Ubuntu (a version of Linux) forums know that the service would soon work on Linux.

Netflix support for Linux has taken so long in large part because video playback on the service used Microsoft’s Silverlight plugin, a Flash competitor that didn’t provide support beyond Windows and OS X. But now that Netflix is switching to HTML5 for video, this isn’t as big of an issue anymore. That’s good news for Linux users, who have resorted to hacking their systems to get Netflix to work in the past.

Adolph said the service “will play with Chrome stable in 14.02 if NSS version 3.16.2 or greater is installed.” As Engadget notes, NSS is a security service that protects the video stream against piracy, which obviously is a chief concern for a company like Netflix.