At long last, playing Netflix on Linux should Just Work™—so long as you're using Google's latest web browser.
As Liliputing reports, the latest stable release of Chrome, version 38, enables HTML5 video with DRM protection. Netflix happily supports the feature, allowing playback in the Linux version of the browser without requiring the user to jump through any hoops.
Liliputing notes that it's no longer necessary to fake a different user agent, as was required with the Chrome 38 beta this summer. Support for HTML5 with DRM was already in place at the time, but Netflix apparently restricted access to Windows users. Bypassing that restriction involved the use of a user-agent spoofing extension.
No-fuss Netflix support should please folks with Linux-powered home-theater PCs. It looks like most major distributions play nicely with the new HTML5 DRM in Chrome, including Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, and Arch Linux.
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