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Linux flick can't be played on Linux

by on09 April 2009


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Oh the irony


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DVD rental company Netflix has been offering this service which allows punters to watch online rather than wait for the postal service to deliver them. But "Instant Watching" is only open to those who partake of the Microsoft Kool Aid as one Linux geek found out.

A bogger by the name of "Dwasifar Sminginamini Karalahishipoor" noticed a flick on the site about the rise of the Linux operating system. While this was never a blockbuster, and was dated 2002, he thought it would be a nifty idea to watch it.

However Netflix said he could not put it on his list of Instant Watching films, but you can't watch it that way if you use Linux. So Netflix stuck a film about Linux on its system which can't actually use the operating system.

It highlights some of the problems that the providers of online movies have.  In the UK the BBC also faced an outcry from licence paying Linux geeks when its player didn't work on their operating system.

Netflix's rival, Boxee also needs a native player to be present on the system.
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