Watch Netflix in Linux Mint and Ubuntu

Netflix has become a standard among video streaming services. It does have one not-so-small drawback among fans of the Penguin: they do not support Linux at all and probably never will. This is not to say, though, that it does not work with Ubuntu-based distributions, such as Linux Mint.


The cool part about how people in the Linux community work in this case is that you actually have options. First of all, you could install Pipelight, make a few tweaks to your web browser, and be able to move along. This has the added benefit of enabling Silverlight for other sites which use the technology, such as the school management system RenWeb. Details for how to set this up can be found in this article. I prefer to have a dedicated package for Netflix and to not have to change any settings in my regular web browser. Here's how it's done.

The Quick Terminal Way

Open Terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pipelight/stable -y
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y netflix-desktop

For those new the the Terminal, the sudo command executes everything after it as the machine administrator, root. add-apt-repository -y adds a new package repository to the system. apt-get update re-reads the list of packages in each repository available to the system, including the one we just added. apt-get install -y netflix-desktop installs Netflix Desktop. 

The Beginner-Friendly Way

For the purposes of these steps, Linux Mint 13 MATE Edition is assumed. If you are using a newer version or a different desktop environment, these steps will be slightly different, but not so much that you shouldn't be able to figure it out.

1. Open the program Software Sources. In Ubuntu, this is done most easily by searching for it in the Dash. Linux Mint users can find it in the Menu under All Applications | Preferences.
2. Click on the Other Software tab and then click the Add button.
3. Enter the following text into the box and click Add Source: deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ehoover/compholio/ubuntu precise main
4. Do the same for this text, as well: deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ehoover/compholio/ubuntu precise main
5. Search for netflix and install the corresponding package.

Once the package has installed, you will find the icon for Netflix Desktop in the Sound and Video group. Enjoy!